BEIJING,
May 31 -- Caretakers are turning to computers to save the frescoes of China's
Dunhuang grottoes on the ancient Silk Road from half a million tourists a year, the
Bloomberg reported.
Officials will scan 45,000 square meters (54,000
square yards) of frescoes, or about the area of 10 football fields, and 3,390
Buddhist statues. The images will form a virtual-reality tour for visitors to
see before they enter the grottoes. The project, a collaboration with the Mellon
Institute in Pittsburgh, may take five years to record the first 20 of 492
grottoes, said Fan Jinshi, director of the Dunhuang Research Institute.
"Because tourists must use flashlights when they
enter the grottoes, they get vague impressions of what they see," Fan said. "The
digital displays give them a better-informed tour and save them the trek to
grottoes they're not interested in."
Reducing the time visitors spend inside the grottoes
helps cut the levels of carbon dioxide and moisture, emissions that break down
the delicate dye-on-plaster of the murals and statues.
Dunhuang was a trade hub on the Silk Road during the
Sui Dynasty (581-618) and Tang Dynasty (618-907), when caravans bearing Chinese
tea and silk for Persia and Europe stopped at its oases. The area was also a
religious center, where the aesthetics of Buddhism, Islam, Tibetan sects,
Sogdian and Tangut cultures were displayed in clay sculptures and grotto murals.
Construction of the grottoess began in the fourth century
by a monk called Yuezun and continued until the 14th century. The earliest of
Dunhuang's grottoes at Mogao date to the Northern Liang period (366-439). One of
the largest grottoes features a 26- meter (85-feet) sitting Buddha made during the
Tang Dynasty.
Seeping rain
Tourists are not the only threat to the relics.
Caretakers have been working since 1989 with Los Angeles-based Getty Research
Institute to preserve 16 large sutras in cave 85, a chamber commissioned in 867
depicting the life stories of King Divi before he reached enlightenment to
become the Buddha.
The murals, painted in mineral and plant dye over
plaster, have been peeling away from their bedrock because of increasing
moisture and mineral salts that crystallize from seeping rain water, Fan said in
the April 30 interview.
There are a total of 812 grottoes along a 1.7 kilometer
(1 mile) of cliff face, hewn into the sandstone of the Mingsha Mountains in the
Gobi desert. The Mogao grottoes were designated in 1991 as a World Cultural
Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization. Tourists to Mogao reached 550,000 last year, from about 200,000 in
1998.
"I'm sure we'll easily top the 2006 numbers this
year," said Fan, 68. "The number of visitors jumped especially after 1998, with
improved highways, faster trains and a larger airport in Dunhuang."
Relic hunter
Some efforts already are under way to regulate
visitor numbers to Dunhuang. Caretakers open as many as 80 grottoes to tourists
during the peak season from July to September, leaving 30 grottoes opened during
the rest of the year. Tour operators must reserve in advance and follow
designated routes, she said.
The Dunhuang digital archive will include images from
the grottoes as well as frescoes and scriptures from the area that now reside in
the world's museums, including the British Library.
The new technology "will allow a clearer view of
every detail of the frescoes before you pick your route through the grottoes,"
Fan said. "It lets us preserve while allowing access."
(Source: CRIENGLISH.com/Agencies)
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