China, Japan and UNESCO to Jointly Protect Xinjiang GrottoesChina, Japan, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will join efforts to protect the Thousand Buddhas Grottoes in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China.Representatives from Japan and the UNESCO, and officials from China's State Bureau of Cultural Relics made the announcement after a recent tour to the grottoes in Kumutula, 30 kilometers southwest of Kuqa County. Japan will provide 2.5 million US dollars of aid to help renovate the buddhas carved on the grottoes' rocks. Yue Feng, director of the Xinjiang Regional Bureau of Cultural Relics, said the grottoes wild be Xinjiang's second historic site under UNESCO protection, following the ancient city of Jiaohe. The grottoes, believed to have been carved between the 5th and 11th centuries, are of great significance for studying cultural exchanges between China and Western countries and the development of the Silk Road, and they have been under state protection since 1961. |
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