CHINA: Tourists, sand and time threaten the ancient treasures of China's largest Buddhist art gallery

Crescent Moon Lake was not always this small - but encroaching deserts have dried this Silk Road watering hole to a puddle. Shifting sands are moving in on another World Heritage Site close by - the Mogao Grottoes, home to the greatest Buddhist art gallery in the world. After decades of neglect, conservationists are working to protect the fragile murals and statues in 492 of Mogao's caves. Dotting a mile-long stretch of sandstone cliff, Mogao's caves were first settled by the 4th century monks who brought Buddhism from India to China. The monastic community stayed on for a thousand years - using the grotto walls as a canvas to document their spiritual journey towards enlightenment. Mogao also attracted traders and pilgrims who stopped by to gape at the delicate renderings of saints and deities gracing the grottoes' walls. Today the visitors are local tourists - a problem which could turn out to be more troublesome than sandstorms. The Dunhuang Academy - Mogao's administrator - has managed to bring environmental issues more or less under control during the sixty years of its existence. Lines of trees and foliage now protect the caves from the 4,000 cubic metres of sand per year that blow in from the nearby Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts. But the tourists don't stop. As many as 5,000 a day file through the grottoes during peak times in May and October. "World Heritage Sites like the Mogao Caves should make a contribution to the world. But what to do? These cultural artefacts can't handle too many people - they will be damaged. And also we need to think about the development of the economy. I think the best thing is to find a kind of balance," said Fan Jinshi, director of the Dunhuang Academy. China has the world's largest domestic tourist market. The number of Chinese tourists travelling nationwide reached 1.1 billion last year, and tourism revenues topped 471.1 billion yuan (approx. 58 billion U.S. dollars). For local officials the future is bright - a branch of the Qinghai-Tibet railway has been laid to nearby Dunhuang city and will open by the end of the year. But the Dunhuang Academy is concerned. "These caves are small. If you get too many people inside then the temperature rises. And people sweat, raising humidity and oxidization levels. When all these levels are raised it is harmful for the paintings," said Fan Jinshi. The Academy has declined to turn the caves into eye candy for visitors - most of the paintings and statues have not been touched by renovators. As a result, Mogao is a refreshing contrast to other sites like the Great Wall - which has been partially "remade" by untrained workers and substandard materials. "If you renovate it to make it look brand new, you are erasing and destroying its message. And its value decreases. Do you think that this is good preservation? We really pay a lot of attention to this, and protect these things according to their original appearance," said Fan Jinshi. Instead, the Academy has taken to easing the burden of tourist traffic by shunting groups away from the caves as much as possible. A nearby exhibition centre housing nearly perfect replications encourages tourists to take a closer look. "Some of the paintings in the caves have already been harmed, and some very seriously damaged. So we make a faithful replica of these. Then we can make an exhibit - because the things inside the caves can't be touched," said Hou Jiming, director of the Dunhuang Academy's Fine Arts Institute. Hou heads a team of 30 talented artists that can spend as long as three years copying in minute detail a single mural. The replicas are rendered in a rainbow of natural paint mixtures - all carefully researched to preserve the integrity of Mogao's originals. To date the institute's team has recreated 11 of the grottoes in full. These copies may be the salvation of the original masterpieces.

ITN Source | November 11, 2005

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