Objects that tell of the famous Silk Road
Press release from 09/17/2008
The academy project "Turfan Research" of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Museum of Asian Art - SMB (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) are partners in the EU project 'IDP-CREA The International Dunhuang Project - Cultural Routes of Eurasia
Berlin, 17 September 2008: The Buddhist "Tale of the Hungry Tigress", which is widespread in Central Asia, is the starting point for an innovative project on Eurasian culture for the "Turfan Research" project of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The history of the transmission of this ancient Turkish text discovery allows us to trace the emergence of the text in Central Asia in the course of the spread of Buddhism and the associated written culture, as well as its journey to Berlin many centuries later.
The undertaking is inspired and supported by the International Dunhuang Project (IDP), which was founded in 1993 with the aim of coordinating the management, conservation and digitisation of collections of Central Asian art and texts from the famous Silk Road. Six European institutions are currently working on cataloguing, documenting and presenting one object each from the culture of the legendary Silk Road in order to make the historical links between Europe and Central Asia tangible in an exemplary manner. The six European cultural institutions - the British Library, the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Musée Guimet, Paris, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Museum of Asian Art, Berlin - see this as an opportunity to process and link the remarkable stories of European explorers, archaeologists and scientists who travelled to China in the early years of the 20th century. Their documentation will reveal a common Eurasian culture that has existed for centuries and continues to this day.
As part of this project, the Museum of Asian Art in Berlin will make the famous reconstruction of the "Cave with the Ring-Bearing Doves" (from Kizil, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China), which is on display in the permanent exhibition there, accessible on the IDP website. Interactive panels and photos will illustrate how the caves were constructed, worked and painted in the sixth century AD and how the mineral colours were transported from distant lands. There are also plans to restore and reconstruct further cave temples in co-operation with Chinese institutions as part of the planned Humboldt Forum.
The Academy is entering some of its texts from the Turfan collection, which have already been digitised with the help of the DFG and in cooperation with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, into the online database supported by all partners. The Academy is enriching the database with further information, while the museum is making photographs and the files of the turfan expeditions accessible there.
The results of these various projects, which are being carried out together with Chinese partners, will be incorporated into a major exhibition as well as two educational workshops and research trips. The EU is supporting this pioneering international project with funds from its cultural programme.
In Berlin, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Museum of Asian Art have the most important collection of artefacts from Turfan and the surrounding area from the four German expeditions there between 1902 and 1914.
The Turfan text collection of the BBAW is kept in the Oriental Department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage) as a deposit and is curated and conserved.
Literature:
Marianne Yaldiz/Peter Zieme: 100 Years of Turfan Expeditions. Paths of research in archaeology, art history and philology. In: Yearbook of Prussian Cultural Heritage Vol. 39, 2002
Katharina Wewerke: Preserved in the desert sand, restored in Berlin: The manuscripts of the Turfan collection under the scalpel. In: Bibliotheksmagazin. Announcements from the State Libraries in Berlin and Munich, 2/2008
Press contact:
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Information and Communication Department
Gisela Lerch
Tel. 030/20 370 657
E-mail
Website
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Press and Public Relations
Dr Stefanie Heinlein
Tel. 030 / 25463 206
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