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Dunhuang Witnesses Centenary Vicissitudes in a Millenium History
To mark the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Library Cave of Mogao Grottoes, a Grand Dunhuang Art Show was scheduled to be opened from July 4 through August 31. The show was sponsored by the Gansu provincial people's government and the State Bureau of Cultural Relics, and undertaken by the Dunhuang Research Institute and the National Museum of Chinese History (NMCH).
According to Li Ji, director of the Display Department of the NMCH, this exhibition, different from other Dunhuang art show in the past, is of the largest and the highest standard and has gathered the cream of the Dunhuang art. Quite a few of the cultural relics are genuine works in the early time of Dunhuang, and some are even nonpareil from museum abroad. The exhibition includes four reproduced caves, 30 copies of frescoes, 10 painted sculptures, 14 pieces of authentic works of sutras and 10 replicas, six authentic works of silk paintings, etc. Besides, there are over 80 valuable pictures reflecting the discovery and scattering and damage of these relics in the past hundred years. Most of the relics are being shown to the public for the first time.
A great deal of facsimiles truly recreate the original appearance of the precious cultural and historical relics, give a new life to those relics which have been damaged in the transition of long history and enable the public to appreciate the cream of Chinese arts. Moreover, those facsimiles themselves are relics. Li told us that they are all masterpieces of leading artists in China. Some artists devote their whole life to imitating frescoes and paintings of Dunhuang and recreating the brilliant history. Through 80 valuable photos, this exhibition also shows the public the discovery of the library and the flow-away of its relics. They vividly tell people the great calamity and humiliation of Dunhuang in the past one hundred years.
Director Li said that a large amount of treasures of Duhuang had lost to some areas abroad since the discovery of the library. For example, the library contained about 50,000 ancient documents, Buddhist sutras, arts and crafts, however, more than 40,000 of them were looted abroad and only about 8,000 are still reserved in the National Library of China. Plundered treasures of Dunhuang are mainly concentrated in Britain, France, Russia, Japan and the Republic of Korea.
The exhibition has attracted large numbers Dunhuang art lovers. It's said that the number of daily visitors reaches around 6,000 to 8,000 during weekends and holidays and 4,000 to 5,000 during weekdays as well. The majority of the visitors come to the exhibition individually.
It's disclosed that this exhibition might be held in other Chinese cities and some foreign countries have also expressed great interest in jointly holding such art show. Li Ji indicated that he highly hoped to show the cream of Dunhuang art abroad so as to enable the people of the world to understand the excellent cultural heritage of the Chinese nation.
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