Protection of the palm leaf Sutra of the Potala Palace in Tibet: from "horn pulse" research to digital information collection
2021-11-01
"From quantity to disease, the Potala Palace has started to carry out a comprehensive investigation of Sanskrit beiyejing cultural relics since May last year, and has achieved phased results." Dr. Doji pincuo, cultural relics research office of the Potala Palace Management Office, said in an interview with China News Agency recently. From 2019, the Chinese government plans to invest a total of 300 million yuan of special funds in 10 years to carry out the largest special work on the protection and utilization of ancient books and documents in the Potala Palace so far. The Potala Palace is the place with the largest number of existing Sanskrit Beiye scriptures in China. According to statistics, there are 465 letters and 29380 leaves, of which the pure Beiye scriptures are up to 22588 pages, followed by 5634 leaves of pure paper Sanskrit classics and 1158 leaves of Beiye mixed collection paper. How to make a protection plan? Finding out the disease is the top priority. Duoji pingcuo said: "there are about 20 kinds of diseases, with a high incidence of edge fiber delamination and warping, blank fracture or deformity, folds and so on." Taking the edge fiber delamination and warping disease as an example, 220 of the 381 letters affected by the disease have edge fiber delamination and warping. Because the disease has progressive characteristics, it can gradually evolve from fiber warping to edge fiber shedding. It is worth mentioning that the occurrence rate of microbial diseases (bacterial damage and mildew) is low due to the favorable factors of plateau climate. Taking 387 of them as the investigation object, according to the disease investigation, the project team has formulated the disease occurrence classification table, disease classification list and disease grade list. Duoji pingcuo said that since the project was launched for more than a year, the project team has also completed the research on the research status of the production materials, processes and protection and restoration technologies of the shell leaf Sutra at home and abroad, formed and completed the literature review of the production process and materials of the shell leaf Sutra, the literature review of the research on the etiology of the shell leaf Sutra disease and the coding rules of the shell leaf Sutra cultural relics in the Potala Palace (Draft for comments), and formulated Basic requirements for cataloging of Potala Palace stored shell leaf scriptures (Draft for comments). In addition, hyperspectral data trial scanning and HD digital image acquisition have been carried out. "The Beiye Sutra collected in the Potala Palace contains most of the contents of the two revealed Buddhism sects, as well as a large number of contents of common studies or general knowledge." Doji pingcuo believes that systematically sorting out and compiling the detailed catalogue of the shell leaf scriptures collected in the Potala Palace can reveal the specific process of the spread, development and Tibetan transmission of the civilization of the South Asian subcontinent dominated by Buddhism in China, and is an important symbol and concrete embodiment of the Sinicization of Buddhism. Doji pingcuo said that the collation and research of the bayonet Sutra in Tibet started early in the world. Since the beginning of the last century, foreign scholars have conducted more in-depth and systematic research on the bayonet Sutra in Tibet. The project team also sorted out the general situation of the protection and research of the bayonet Sutra in Tibet in China. Since the 1960s, the central government has carried out research on the bayonet Sutra in Tibet, including the bayonet Sutra Precious cultural relics have been kept in a centralized manner. He said that the project needs to make use of the language and material advantages of Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese and English as the basis and guarantee for promotion, and will realize the comprehensive collation of the shell leaf scriptures in the Potala Palace collection and the detailed catalogue of each shell leaf Scripture. It will fully master the overall information of the shell leaf scriptures in the Potala Palace, take the multi character achievements as the form advantages, take the sample base as the content advantages, and compare with the international academic model To grasp China's right to speak in the study of the global Beiye Sutra. "In terms of cycle, the completed work is only a small part of the whole project." Duoji pingcuo said that in the next stage, the project team will complete the digital filing of all beiyejing cultural relics (construction of basic information database) , carry out the research on traditional processes such as the production of shell leaf Sutra. Of course, there are the most difficult work. Study and formulate the work processes such as cleaning, dislocation and return of shell leaf fibers, surrounding reinforcement (edge fixation), softening (local or whole page), uncovering local adhesion, and carry out experimental repair. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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