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Dunhuang and Turfan: Contents and Conservation of Ancient Documents from Central Asia is a very useful little book published by the British Library . It was the work of a 1993 conference on preserving the Dunhuang documents with speakers representing the different collections around the world. A lot of the articles involved technical descriptions of the different conservation practices that had been used in the different countries. Ironically most of the earlier conservation techniques ended up hurting the documents more than protecting them.
There was a nice article by Frances Wood about the Stein collection. It was interesting to see that Stein himself was quite unhappy with the treatment that the documents received from the British museum and that he refused to work with them on his later exhibitions. It was also interesting to see the trouble involved in cataloguing the documents and also getting the catalogue published. Giles, the sinologist who did the catalogue, was in a nursing home waiting for the publishers, asking if he was still going to be alive when they finally were published. The article included a letter he wrote that was both heartbreaking and amusing.
The catalogue was eventually published a year before he died at the age of 83.
There was also an interesting article about the founding of the International Dunhuang Project. The result of the conference. It was decided that an international electronic database of material needed to be made available and more international corporation on sharing conservation techniques, as well as sharing content of the documents needed to be made available. This was the start of the website where you can now go and read a collection of the British and Chinese documents.
It was an interesting short little book, and invaluable research for my upcoming essay.
There was a nice article by Frances Wood about the Stein collection. It was interesting to see that Stein himself was quite unhappy with the treatment that the documents received from the British museum and that he refused to work with them on his later exhibitions. It was also interesting to see the trouble involved in cataloguing the documents and also getting the catalogue published. Giles, the sinologist who did the catalogue, was in a nursing home waiting for the publishers, asking if he was still going to be alive when they finally were published. The article included a letter he wrote that was both heartbreaking and amusing.
I will return the script if required, but just at present I happen to have smashed my pen (this is borrowed) and in any case, to be without money, and not allowed to set foot outside the premises!
The catalogue was eventually published a year before he died at the age of 83.
There was also an interesting article about the founding of the International Dunhuang Project. The result of the conference. It was decided that an international electronic database of material needed to be made available and more international corporation on sharing conservation techniques, as well as sharing content of the documents needed to be made available. This was the start of the website where you can now go and read a collection of the British and Chinese documents.
It was an interesting short little book, and invaluable research for my upcoming essay.