Photo:Xinhua

Northwest China's Gansu Province spent a total of 23.76 million yuan ($3.24 million) in obtaining more than 100,000 high-resolution images of Dunhuang relics from overseas in 2024, marking significant progress in the digital restoration project of Dunhuang cultural relics housed abroad, according to Chinanews.com on Thursday.

At a meeting within the Gansu provincial cultural heritage bureau on Wednesday, officials announced continued expansion of the digital Dunhuang database. To date, the digital collection of murals from 295 caves has been completed, including image stitching and processing for 186 caves, 3D reconstruction of 45 sculptures, and panoramic virtual tours for 162 caves.

High-resolution images of 30 entire caves and information on more than 6,500 manuscripts from the Digital Library Cave have reached visitors in 78 countries and garnered over 23 million views globally. Advanced technologies have been extensively applied to digitization and preservation initiatives in 22 cultural institutions across 9 provinces in China.

"We will continue to strengthen negotiations and cooperation with collection institutions in countries such as the UK, France, Russia, and Japan to facilitate the digital restoration of Dunhuang cultural relics housed abroad," said Qiu Jian, deputy director of the Gansu provincial cultural heritage bureau.

This year, Gansu plans to utilize the newly acquired digital resources, accelerate the construction of the second phase of the Digital Library Cave database, and further expand the Digital Library for Dunhuang Studies.

"We aim to sign digital resource collection or sharing agreements with multiple countries in 2025, to make breakthroughs in acquiring additional digital resources for Dunhuang cultural relics," Qiu noted.

The Digital Library for Dunhuang Studies and the Digital Library Cave database were launched in 2024, facilitating the sharing of high-resolution digital images of the Mogao Grottoes and digital resources from the Library Cave.

In 2025, Gansu will host the global Dunhuang culture tour, host the Maijishan Grottoes art exhibition in Taiwan region, hold a digital Dunhuang art exhibition in Japan, and present an exhibition about the transportation and exchange on the Silk Road in Colombia, according to Qiu.

This year, Gansu will support the Dunhuang Academy in collaborating with the University of Oxford in the UK and the Getty Conservation Institute in the US to create a joint laboratory focused on grotto temple and earthen site conservation.

Efforts will also be made to accelerate the establishment of a national key laboratory for cultural heritage conservation, a China-Central Asia joint laboratory for cultural heritage protection under the Belt and Road Initiative, the reorganization of the national innovation center for ancient mural and earthen Site conservation technology, and the construction of the Dunhuang Academy big data center. These initiatives seek to address key challenges in cultural heritage conservation and digitalization.

Global Times