PD August 19, 2005
Int'l symposium on Dazu Grottoes opens in southwest China city

An international symposium on protection of the Dazu Grottoes, a world cultural heritage site, opened Thursday in Chongqing municipality in southwest China.

The five-day symposium, with the attendance of approximately 250 specialists and representatives from 13 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, was also convened for the purpose of commemorating the 60th anniversary of the first scientific inspection into the grottoes, its organizers say.

During the symposium, participants will discuss topics about international academic exchange and cooperation concerning the Dazu Grottoes, enhancing the protection of and research on the grottoes, and will view the latest research achievements in this regard, according to organizers.

Situated in Dazu County, some 165 km west of Chongqing, the most vital industrial and business city on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the Dazu Grottoes consist of over 50,000 Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian rock carvings with more than 100,000 character inscriptions, completed from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and scattered around over 70 sites in Dazu.

The rock carvings are mostly concentrated in Beishan Mountain, Baoding Mountain, Nanshan Mountain, Shizhuan Mountain and Shimen Mountain. The first scientific inspection into the grottoes was made by a team led by Yang Jialuo in 1945.

In December 1999, the grottoes were listed as a world cultural heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Source: Xinhua

http://english.people.com.cn/200508/19/text20050819_203387.html

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Scholars begin scientific research on dazu stone carvings
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-24 13:20:53
[image]

BEIJING, Aug. 24 -- Some 100 scholars flocked to a remote area of southwestern China and marked the important science and research result by way of scientific research and academic seminar on Dazu stone.

Sixty years ago, Yang Jialuo, director of the then China Academics Museum, led scholars to make the first academic research on the Dazu stone carvings in a remote area of southwestern China. As a result, the Dazu stone carvings have become known since then.

For days on, some 100 scholars from 11 countries and regions, including China, the United States, Britain, Germany and France flocked to the area and marked the important science and research result by way of scientific research and academic seminar, reports the overseas edition of People's Daily on August 23.

Scholars will reportedly make an on-the-spot survey on the Dazu stone carvings during a five-day seminar. In addition, they will hold academic exchanges on relevant issues involving Tang and Song dynasties' grottoes, Esoteric Buddhism and the latest grottoes in China, and they will publish scores of high-quality academic research results.

(China Daily August 24, 2005)

http://www.china.org.cn/english/culture/139550.htm

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PD, August 19, 2005
China, US and Australia cooperate in Mogao Grottoes conservation

The general plan of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes conservation and management is now available. The "Overall Planning of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Conservation" has passed experts' demonstration recently. The plan is the common achievements made by the History Research Institute under the China Architectural Design Academy, the Getty Conservation Institute from the US, the Australian Heritage Commission and the Dunhuang Academy. It is the first heritage preservation plan worked out in China, based on international cooperation, according to the overseas edition of People's Daily on August 19.

The Dunhuang grottoes in Gansu Province are the best-preserved Buddhist art treasures with the longest history in the world. There are 735 caves with more than 2,000 colored clay sculptures and more than 40,000 square meters of murals as well as more than 50,000 Dunhuang relics scattered across the globe.

The Mogao grottoes were put on the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Cultural Heritage list in 1987. However, the dry weather and severe wind-blown sand in the northwestern China put the grottoes under a long-term bad environment. The ancient murals suffer damages of time repeatedly. There are serious damages inside some caves, such as crisping and peeling.

Tourism pressure lets experts and scholars have more worries. The caves cover generally 20 to 30 square meters with the smallest one having only several square meters. Damage also threatens from the modern perils of mass tourism, where moisture from the breath of visiting crowds can impair murals with faded colors and other damages. In addition, the atmosphere and water pollution caused by more vehicles around them, or even vehicle vibration, will have inestimable impact on the caves.

"If there will be no limit for the increasing number of tourists, the murals will be finally destroyed in a thousand years by the visitors", said Fan Jinshi, director of the Dunhuang Academy with exclamation.

Early in 1997 the Dunhuang Academy, the US Getty Conservation Institute, the Australian Heritage Commission and the China National Commission of the International Council on Monuments and Sites started the compilation of "Chinese Relics Preservation Rules". In 1999, the compilation work on the "Overall Planning of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Conservation", one of the important projects for testing the rules' authority and feasibility was formally kicked off. The History Research Institute under the China Architectural Design Academy, the US-based Getty Conservation Institute, the Australian Heritage Commission and Dunhuang Academy, also known as the four parties from three countries, took part in the compiling process. In the past six years, through hard work, the four parties have discussed and revised the plan for many times. They have developed new techniques for the planned relics preservation, and in the end completed the general planning this year.

According to Wang Xudong, deputy director of the academy, by adhering to the plan's principle of "preserving the relics and their environmental veracity, completion and continuation", the planning proposed to preserve and continue the historical message and the values of the grottoes in an all-round way. A world-class relics site museum and an international first-class preservation unit will be built in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. The targets are that a Dunhuang grottoes research and data center with international influence and a grottoes murals preservation and research center with international standards will be established.

The main contents of the planning are consisted of 15 components, including relics formation, value evaluation, preservation and assessment on the present conditions, utilization and management assessment, planning principle and goals, preservation plan, utilization scheme, management work, academic research, and detailed preservation measures. The planning contains large qualities of basic data with applying foreign advanced ideas to relics preservation so that a blueprint has been drawn for the work of preservation, management, utilization and research in the next 20 years.

By People's Daily Online

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200508/19/eng20050819_203521.html

 

 

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(Art-Eastasia list)

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http://www.fluktor.de

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