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

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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 ...
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Manuscripts Temporarily Inaccessible

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The British Library is carrying out some essential work on its storage facilities later this year which will mean the Dunhuang and other Chinese Central Asian manuscripts are not accessible from 23 August to 17 November, 2013. Apologies for any inconvenience and please can you pass on the information to any other scholars or students who might be intending to visit.

Please contact us if you have any questions or check here or the IDP home page for updates.

Please also note that all requests for viewing Dunhuang and other Chinese Central Asian manuscripts at the British Library should be sent through to idp@bl.uk and that everyone needs to complete the online form.

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