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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#MuseumMastermind and #MuseumWeek

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This week IDP UK has been taking part in Twitter’s #MuseumWeek event and today for the ‘Test Your Knowledge’ #MuseumMastermind day we prepared two quizzes and a bonus question. For the first quiz we asked our followers to identify the languages and scripts of manuscripts, and for the second we asked them to name the pictured buddha or bodhisattva. The bonus question was to tell us the printing date of the Diamond Sutra currently on display in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery at the British Library. The answers to all our questions are shown below.

Find out more about #MuseumWeek on Twitter or follow IDP UK to hear about all our activities and events.

Languages and Scripts

Question 1/13: Or.8211/1393
Gandhārī (lang.), Kharoṣṭhi (script)

Question 2/13: PEALD 6a
Old Turkic (lang.), Uygur (script)

Question 3/6: Or.8212/98
Sogdian (lang and script.)

Question 4/13: IOL Tib J 120.1
Tibetan (lang. and script)

Question 5/13: IOL Toch 1
Tocharian B (lang.), Brāhmī (script)

Question 6/13: IOL Khot W 1
Khotanese (lang.), Brāhmī (script)

Question 7/13: Or.13873/2
Forgery (see here for more information).

Question 8/13: Or.8212/166
Judaeo-Persian (lang.), Hebrew (script)

Question 9/13: Or.8212/161
Old Turkic (lang.), Kok Turkic (script)

Question 10/13: Or.8212/1872(d)
Middle Persian (lang.), Pahlavi (script)

Question 11/13: Or.12380/3500
Sanskrit (lang.), Brāhmī (script), Chinese (lang. and script)

Question 12/13: Or.12380/1840
Tangut (lang. and script)

Question 13/13: Or.8210/S.5662
Chinese (lang. and script)

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

Question 1/6: 1919,0101,0.31
Tejaprabhā Buddha

Question 2/6: Or.8210/S.6983
Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin)

Question 3/6: 1919,0101,0.15
Avalokiteśvara (Water Moon Guanyin)

Question 4/6: 1919,0101,0.34
Mañjuśrī

Question 5/6: 1919,0101,0.10
Avalokiteśvara (Cintāmānicakra)

Question 6/6: 1919,0101,0.4
Kṣitigarbha

The Diamond Sutra

Bonus Question: The Diamond Sutra Or.8210/P.2
Printed in AD 868.

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