Exhaustive data bank on Dunhuang grottoes being built

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 ◆ Exhaustive data bank on Dunhuang grottoes being built

Researchers or common enthusiasts of Dunhuang may have access in two years to any information on the Buddhist cultural site's manuscript scrolls, grotto archeology and history and geography, thanks to a special data bank under construction.

Upon completion, the data bank being built at the Dunhuang Research Institute is expected to be the most complete and authentic information service center in the world on the Dunhuang grottoes in northwest China's Gansu Province.

Sorting and computer editing of 80 percent of Dunhuang Studies, one of the three prestigious journals on the subject in China, has been finished, according to Li Hong'en, a scholar from the Dunhuang Research Institute.

By the end of 2004, all other articles, books and related research results on Dunhuang will be digitized, Li said.

By that time, Dunhuang scholars will be able to share the treasured resources of the cultural relics through Internet surfing.

Almost immediately after its inception, Dunhuang enthusiasm spread internationally. Currently, there are about 10 research institutes on the Chinese mainland and another 10 research organs in Hong Kong and Taiwan and in Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

The Dunhuang Research Institute is believed to be the most competent in the world to establish a comprehensive and authentic data bank. It has forged data exchange ties with 90-plus related document centers from outside China.

The Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, popularly renowned as the Thousand Buddha Caves, were carved out of the steep, rough rocks stretching about 1,600 meters along the eastern side of Mingsha Hill, 25 km southeast of Dunhuang. Construction began in 366 A.D. and continued for another 10 or so dynasties.

In the year 1900, a noted Taoist priest discovered a cave at the site which contained more than 50,000 sutras, documents and paintings of nearly 10 dynasties ranging from the fourth to the 11th century.

The United States Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization listed the Mogao Grottoes as a World Heritage Site in1987.