INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and digitise manuscripts, printed
archaeological sites at the eastern end of the Silk Road.Founded in 1994, the IDP has grown to include over 35 institutions across 3
Learn more about our origins and the history of the Silk Roads.IDP is an international digitization project that aims to promote the study
and preservation of manuscripts and printed documents from Dunhuang and other Central Asiansites through global cooperation.Beginning in
1994, IDP has till now made tens of thousands of images together with catalogues, translations, historical photographs, archaeological site
plans and much more freely available to all on the Internet.One of the most important discoveries of the early 20th century was a sealed
cave near the oasis-town of Dunhuang in present-day Gansu province, China
It contained tens of thousands of manuscripts, printed documents, paintings and other items, all walled-up at the beginning of the 11th
century.These materials tell fascinating stories about life on the Silk Roads, and have been compared to the Dead Sea Scrolls for their
However, in the early 1900s they were dispersed to institutions worldwide, due to the activities of explorers from Britain, France, Germany,
Japan and Russia, who sought to acquire objects unearthed from ancient sites in China and Central Asia.In 1993, the British Library hosted a
conference gathering conservators and curators from all the major collections with holdings from Dunhuang
All parties agreed to work together to make these more accessible and to ensure their long-term preservation
The International Dunhuang Project was founded the following year in 1994.The city of Dunhuang, in north-west China, is situated at a point
of vital strategic and logistical importance, on a crossroads of two major trade routes within the Silk Road network
Lying in an oasis at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert, Dunhuang was one of the first trading cities encountered by merchants arriving in
It was also an ancient site of Buddhist religious activity, and was a popular destination for pilgrims, as well as acting as a garrison town
The remarkable Mogao Caves, a collection of nearly 500 caves in the cliffs to the south of the city, contain the largest depositary of
historic documents along the Silk Roads and bear witness to the cultural, religious, social and commercial activity that took place in
Dunhuang across the first millennium
in Silk Road trade began to decline.The Silk Road routes from China to the west passed to the north and south of the Taklamakan Desert, and
Dunhuang lay on the junction where these two routes came together
a reference to the noise of the wind over the dunes), making Dunhuang a vital resting point for merchants and pilgrims travelling through
in the Mogao Caves, also known as the Qianfodong (the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas), an astonishing collection of 492 caves that were dug
into the cliffs just south of the city
The first caves were founded in 366 AD by Buddhist monks, and distinguished Dunhuang as a center for Buddhist learning, drawing large
numbers of pilgrims to the city
Monks and pilgrims often travelled via the Silk Roads, and indeed a number of religions, including Buddhism, spread into areas around the
trading routes in this way
The city also lay on the pilgrim route from Tibet to the sacred Mount Wutai
The caves were painted with Buddhist imagery, and their construction would have been an intensely religious process, involving prayers,
incense and ritual fasting
also its significance as a center of cultural and commercial exchange
understanding the cultural diversity of this Silk Road city
The earliest text is dated to 405 AD, whilst the latest dates to 1002 AD
The arrangement of documents in this library cave suggests that they were deliberately stored there, and it seems likely that the local
monasteries used the cave as a store room
They provide a picture of Dunhuang as a vibrant hub of Silk Road trade, and give an indication of the range of goods that were exchanged in
According to these documents, a large number of imports arrived from as far away as north-east Europe
Interestingly, the scrolls that mention merchant caravans are usually written in Sogdian, Uighur, or Turco-Sogdian, indicating that they
were produced by the foreign traders in the city
The range of imported goods included brocade and silk from Persia, metal-ware, fragrances, incense and a variety of precious stones, such
Dunhuang was not simply a recipient of trade however, and had a very active export market too
The scrolls refer to a large number of goods that were produced in city and its surrounding regions and sold to merchants, including silks
This unique view of the imports and exports from the markets of Dunhuang illustrates the vibrancy of Silk Road trade along the routes into
