"For the long-term preservation of Dunhuang" (Preface and Postscript)
2024-01-16
My connection with Dunhuang began with my graduation internship. In my imagination, Dunhuang is a transcendent paradise of peach blossoms. Unexpectedly, upon visiting Dunhuang, apart from its stunning cave art, walking out of the cave reveals a desolate landscape surrounded by the Gobi Desert, with inconvenient transportation, a closed environment, no electricity or water, poor food, and difficult living conditions. Due to my unfamiliarity with the local environment, I left Dunhuang only halfway through my internship. I didn't expect to be assigned to Dunhuang again after graduation in the second year. As a result, I have been working and living in Dunhuang for 60 years. In the early 1980s, the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute ushered in a scientific spring. In view of the fact that the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang are a precious treasure house of culture and art, which have great influence at home and abroad, and the heavy task of protection, research and promotion, the Gansu Provincial Party Committee and the Gansu Provincial Government have decided to expand the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Institute into the Dunhuang Research Institute. In 1986, the National Cutural Heritage Administration decided to declare Mogao Grottoes as a world cultural heritage. I was responsible for writing the "World Heritage Application" materials for Mogao Grottoes. I have studied documents such as the Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Venetian Charter, and have also re studied the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics. I have learned about the concept and principles of protection, as well as the international protection situation. I have also seen the shortcomings and gaps in the protection and management of Mogao Grottoes, which has played an important guiding role in my scientific protection and management. To do a good job in protecting the Mogao Caves, science and technology are indispensable. In the 1980s, I promoted horizontal cooperation between the Dunhuang Research Institute and domestic scientific research institutions, applied for national funds to purchase scientific instruments and modern facilities, and began collaborating with foreign professional scientific research institutions on scientific protection and cultivating scientific and technological protection talents. Guided by the principle of "not changing the original state and minimizing intervention", both parties will analyze and study the production materials, pigment composition, and bonding materials of the diseased murals and colored sculptures in the Mogao Grottoes; Mastered the composition, structure, and physicochemical properties of the clay mural base layer, as well as the mechanisms and causes of various diseases in murals; And studied and screened materials and techniques for repairing different diseases, establishing a scientific and protective technology system for the rescue of cave murals. With the deepening of scientific protection, I have promoted the use of risk management theory as a guide, sensors and network technology to provide basis and guidance for site protection, risk control and management, and established a monitoring and risk pre control system for Mogao Grottoes. The protection of Dunhuang Grottoes has thus entered preventive protection. In the 1970s and 1980s, I worked on the "scientific record archives" of the Mogao Grottoes. When building archives and searching for old ones, I compared photos and deeply understood that the cultural relics of the Dunhuang Grottoes were constantly decaying and deteriorating. I was also deeply concerned that this continuous decay and degradation would ultimately lead to their extinction. In the late 1980s, I learned that information stored in computers after digitizing images could remain unchanged forever. I suggested using computer graphics and image technology to achieve permanent preservation of cultural relics information in the Mogao Grottoes. Through cooperation with domestic and foreign scientific research institutions, the Dunhuang Research Institute has explored and formed a complete set of key technologies and process specifications for digitalization of murals, which mainly include image acquisition, data processing, secure storage, and scientific management. The Dunhuang Grottoes Digital Archives Project has been carried out, and the concept of "permanent preservation" has been proposed
Edit:Luo yu Responsible editor:Wang er dong
Source:people.cn
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