This is a bare and inadequate sampling of the riches found at Dunhuang by Stein and those who followed. The Stein material in Britain is housed primarily in the British Museum and British Library, although the Victoria and Albert Museum contains hundreds of the textiles. The International Dunhuang Project website is in the process of making available in digital form all of the Dunhuang materials and related Silk Road artifacts. Note especially the Silk Road Exhibition pages, which display with helpful descriptions not only Dunhuang materials but related ones from other sites along the Silk Road. If one uses the advanced search page of the IDP website, it is possible to bring up quickly virtually all of the Dunhuang paintings from the British library and all of the textiles at the V and A. The image quality is superb; where there is overlap with what is on the BM site, the latter's images are smaller and in general inferior. On the IDP site, it is best to "search using pre-defined/indexed values," since that saves one the trouble of trying to divine what the appropriate keywords would be. Some of the banners from Dunhuang may also be viewed on the British Museum website at "The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas." Generous selections from this material and other objects in the Stein collection have been displayed in various exhibitions and may be studied in several publications, to which eventually references will be added here. View a sampling of the Dunhuang holdings in the Musée Guimet in Paris, the other major repository of art from Dunhuang. View also a small sample of Dunhuang material in the National Museum in New Delhi. The objects in those collections from Dunhuang are to be added to the IDP online collection.
Click on thumbnail for full view.
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Wall hanging showing the Buddha preaching on Vulture Peak.
T'ang period, 8th c. CE. Found at Mogao Caves, Dunhuang. Embroidery on hemp.
Ch.00260
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The bodhisattva and celestial guardian Vajrapani.
T'ang period, late 9th c. CE. Ink and colors on silk. 79.5 x 25.5 cm.
OA 1919.1-1.0132 (Ch.xxiv.002)
Learn more. View a superb digital image of the banner on the IDP website.
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Manjushri.
T'ang period, 9th c. CE. Found at Mogao Caves, Dunhuang. Ink and colors on silk. 66 x 24.8 cm.
OA 1919.1-1.0141
View on the IDP website.
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Scenes from the life of the Buddha: Siddharta's farewell to his horse and his tonsure at entrance into a life of poverty.
T'ang Dynasty, 8th-early 9th c. CE. Found at Mogao Caves, Dunhuang. Ink and colors on silk. 18.5 x 58.5 cm.
OA 1919.1-1.097 (Ch.lv.0012)
Learn more. View the superb image of the banner on the IDP website.
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Detail of scroll depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha: Maja's dream (the moment of conception).
T'ang period. Found at Mogao Caves, Dunhuang.
OA 1919.1-1.096
See the full image in a superb reproduction.
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The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, guide of souls (two details).
T'ang period, early 10th c. CE. Found at Mogao Caves, Dunhuang. Ink and colors on silk. 84.8 x 54.7 cm.
OA 1919.1-1.046
Learn more. For the best image online, go to IDP database. Learn about an analogous banner, OA 1919.1-1.047.
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The sutra of Buddha's names (detail), read on the last day of the lunar year.
T'ang period, early 10th c. CE. Found at Mogao Caves, Dunhuang.
OA 1919.1-1.074
View additional text and image.
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Game trap.
Latter Han period, 1st-2nd c. CE. Found at one of the watch towers near Dunhuang. Rope and wood.
OA MAS 796 (T.XV.a.i.09)
View additional text and image.
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