The project to protect the Mogao Grottoes from wind drifts has become a model in China's endeavor to protect its world heritage sites in a comprehensive and scientific way.

Fan Jinshi, director of the Dunhuang Research Institute, said science and technology serve as the basis in protecting world heritage sites and the prerequisite for preserving them as long as possible.

The Dunhuang Research Institute has adhered to the policy of placing equal emphasis on research and protection and applying new research results in grotto protection, Fan added.

The Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang City of northwest China's Gansu Province, with a history of more than 1,600 years, has 735 caves housing murals covering a total area of more than 45 square kilometers, displaying Buddha, stories, fairy tales, the history of Buddhism, tales of sutras, decorative patterns, and human figures.

It also treasures 2,000 painted sculptures and 50,000 documents. The grand grottoes were included in the World Cultural Heritage list of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization in 1987.

Since the Dunhuang Research Institute was set up in 1944, Chang Shuhong came to work in Dunhuang as one of the founders. Through the hard work of several generations of scientists, the institute has been at the forefront in ancient grotto protection.

By cooperating with overseas counterparts, the institute has scored tangible achievements in monitoring the environment within grottoes, efflorescence-proofing, sand control, mural repair and selection of the best material to fill in cracks on the grottoes.

After painstaking research and protection for several decades, Mogao Grottoes has shifted from the stage of rescue protection to scientific protection, Fan Jinshi said.

Mogao Grottoes, the largest Buddhist gallery in size, the richest in content and the longest in construction, has eroded in the past 1,600 years as a result of natural and man-made damages.

To solve the problems of mural fading and peeling, the Dunhuang Research Institute has introduced many modern techniques in grotto protection.

For instance, high-module potassium silicate has been used in reinforcing rocks of Mogao grottoes. New materials such as poly-acetic ethene were tried in fresco repair.

Nearly 4 million tourists from more than 80 countries and regions have visited the grottoes since they opened to visitors in1979. The 50 grottoes that open to tourists today receive more than 300,000 people a year, a figure that is expected to climb to 500,000 in the coming five to ten years.

The grottoes are being damaged by carbon dioxide and moisture exhaled by visitors, which raise the temperature and humidity in the grottoes and harm frescos.

To minimize damage to this World Heritage side, scientists of the Dunhuang Research Institute have developed a Virtual Caves project, part of the Digital Dunhuang program, which allow viewers, without entering the grottoes, to feel like they are visiting the real grottoes of amazing Buddhist art.

Application of these comprehensive measures have paid off in grotto protection, laying a solid foundation for building a complete and scientific protection system in Dunhuang, Fan said.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2004)