Posts

Shaping the Stein collection’s Dunhuang corpus (2): the items from Cave 17’s ‘miscellaneous’ bundles

In a previous blog post , we looked at the instrumental role played by Wang Yuanlu during the selection of the items from the Cave 17. Wang, who directly chose from the small repository what to hand over to Stein for inspection, was very keen to divert his attention from the so-called ‘regular’ bundles, which were composed for the most part of Buddhist sutras in Chinese and Tibetan. During their first ever transaction, which took place between 21 May and 6 June 1907, Wang Yuanlu therefore began by handing over the ‘miscellaneous’ bundles, which he seemed to hold in low estimation. To Stein’s delight, these contained mixed and diverse materials, such as manuscripts in non-Chinese languages, illustrated scrolls, paintings, drawings, ex-votos, textiles, etc. Stein picked out any of the items that jumped at him as being particularly interesting and made sure to put them aside for ‘further examination’, the phrase that he used to refer to their removal in his transaction with Wang. This

A Few of Our Favourite Things: #13 Stephen F. Teiser

Exhibition Extended until 24 February

A Few of Our Favourite Things: #12 Fan Jinshi

IDP UK Server Maintenance: Thursday 23 January

A Few of our Favourite Things: #11 Helen Persson

Tibetan biographies of Zen Buddhist masters

Aurel Stein: A hundred years on

Lecture: Aurel Stein and the discovery of the Silk Road

A Few of Our Favourite Things: #10 Agnieszka Helman-Ważny

Online Exhibition: Aurel Stein: A hundred years on

Exhibition opens Today
Aurel Stein and the Silk Road: a hundred years on

A Few of Our Favourite Things: #9 Seishi Karashima