Dunhuang Manuscripts
Overview
Tens of thousands of documents sealed in the Library Cave at Mogao around 1000 and rediscovered by the Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu in 1900. Buddhist sutras, contracts, letters, calendars and poems in Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit and other languages illuminate life on the Silk Road. Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot carried away large shares in 1907 and 1908, scattering the collection across London, Paris, Beijing and St Petersburg.
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