Want to see the oldest printed book which contains its own date of publication (868 AD)? The earliest known atlas of the night sky produce by any civilisation? See a copy of the Diamond Sutra written in the scribe’s own blood? Read an angry letter written by a wife abandoned by her husband 1,400 years ago? Learn about the life of a 10-year-old Buddhist nun?

If all this pulls your daisy, then come to this small but beautifully designed and fascinating exhibition at the British Library.

Scroll in Sanskrit and Khotanese embellished with an opulent silk painting of birds facing each other (943 AD) © British Library

Background history

The Silk Road was a term invented by German explorer Ferdinand von Richthofen in the 1870s to describe the tangle of trade routes stretching across central Asia from China in the East to the Mediterranean in the west. The silk roads went past the Gobi desert, split up to skirt the Taklamakan desert to the north and south, continued on through the Pamir mountains to Kashgar, then on to Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan, through Persia, Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean in the West. At several points offshoots went south into Tibet or India.

The heyday

The network of silk roads began with the expansion of the Han dynasty (202 BC to 220 AD) into Central Asia around 100 BC, and grew and thrived until the tenth century AD. The blockbuster exhibition about them currently on at the British Museum takes its golden age to have been around 500 to 1000 AD.

Silk roads, plural

These days, modern archaeologists and historians refer to the silk roadS very much in the plural 1) in order to take in subsidiary routes, 2) to extend its length eastwards to the coast of China and Korea and westwards to take in Europe, 3) to include the contemporaneous sea routes from China to the Persian Gulf. All this is explained in some length at the British Museum show. However, this exhibition at the British Library focuses more narrowly on the roads’ core zone, from Chang’an in the East to Samarkand in the West.

Map of the silk roads © the British Library

The significance of Dunhuang

As you can see from this map, if you were heading west from China one of the major splits in the route occurred at a place called Dunhuang, where the route split into two roads skirting to the north and south of the uncrossable, huge and ever-shifting Taklamakan Desert.

The way stations along the northern and southern routes consisted of oases created by water in streams and rivers flowing down from the high mountains of the Tien Shan in the north and the Kunlun Shan in the south. According to Peter Hopkirk in his book ‘Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, one of the reasons the silk roads fell into disuse – apart from political turmoil in China and widespread banditry – was because many of these watersources dried up or moved or were filled with sand and silt. As they were abandoned, sand from the great Taklamakan blew over the ruined settlements and buried them for centuries.

Back to Dunhuang, it also was an oasis town, the last one in China (if you were heading west) the first one in China (if you were arriving from the east) and the place where the two major routes round the Taklamakan divided (or rejoined). It was established in 111 BC as a military outpost, fortified with defensive walls and watchtowers.

Buried treasure

Unlike the oasis settlements lining the desert Dunhuang was never abandoned when the roads fell into disuse, but continued to be a populated settlement up to the present day. But over the troubled centuries much of its silk road heritage was lost, forgotten, covered in sand. It was only at the end of the nineteenth century that a stream of explorer-archaeologists realised that there was buried treasure waiting to be dug up in this vast and remote part of central Asia. The story of the scramble for loot between representatives of Western colonial powers who identified and excavated sites right across the region is told in Hopkirk’s book.

Confessional book of the Manichean Uyghurs (ninth to tenth century) © British Library Board

This is one of the most important and complete manuscripts among the Old Uyghur Manichaean texts, the Xuastuanift, a confessional book of Manichaean Uyghurs, on display for the first time. It is a repentance prayer known as the Xuastwanift, which is widely used by the followers of Mani (216 to 277), a Persian prophet. It is around 4.5 metres long, written in Old Turkic in Manichaean script. The scroll demonstrates the eastwards spread of Manichaeism among the Uyghurs, whose West Uyghur Kingdom was tightly connected to Dunhuang.

The Mogao caves

One of the unique things about Dunhuang is the proximity of the astonishing complex of Buddhist caves, the Mogao cave complex, 15 miles to the south-east. We now know that during the silk road era nearly 500 caves were carved into the cliff face here, most of them by Buddhists, many decorated with beautiful multicoloured frescoes and containing artefacts and manuscripts.

The guardian Wang

Aware of a long tradition of Buddhist worship and relics in the region, the local Chinese authorities at the turn of the 20th century had put a Buddhist monk named Wang Yuanlu in charge of sites around the town. As a devout monk Wang earnestly wanted to raise money to regenerate and preserve the caves and regularly toured and examined them.

Photo of the priest, Wang Yuanlu, taken by Aurel Stein and included in his photographic album, 1907 © British Library Board

Wang discovers the Library Cave

One day Wang discovered a false wall at the back of one of these caves, chipped it away and made one of the great archaeological discoveries of all time. For in this cave, subsequently named The Library Cave and now more prosaically referred to as Cave 17, he discovered tens of thousands of ancient scrolls, manuscripts, printed documents, paintings, diagrams, histories, calendars and star charts from the fifth to the eleventh centuries, rolled up and stored higgledy-piggledy.

These scrolls contained an extraordinary range and diversity of documents, on a wide array of subjects, from huge religious scrolls to personal letters, from diplomatic documents to textbooks on astrology, from wills to instructions for the souls of the dead.

They are written in a surprisingly range of contemporary languages, such as Tibetan, Sogdian, Chinese, Old Uyghur, Phags-pa, Tangut and Turkic.

And they attest not only the predominant religion of the region, Buddhism, but many other faiths including Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity which, because of them, we now know thrived in the area.

French archaeologist Paul Pelliot examines manuscripts in the library cave (photo by expedition photographer Charles Nouette, 1908)

Western archaeologists pounce

The western explorers I mentioned above, who made various expeditions throughout the 1890s and early 1900s and whose stories are told in Hopkirk’s book, soon heard rumours about a cave of magical discoveries and made the arduous journey to Dunhuang.

Here the western archaeologists, starting with Marc Aurel Stein, schmoozed the site’s curator, Wang, offering him money, technical assistance, promises to renovate the big painted caves and so on, and talked Wang into parting with thousands and thousands of these priceless scrolls. Crates full of them were dispatched by pony back to Kashgar, by train across Russia and then onto the capitals of Europe. Eventually these priceless manuscripts were scattered across 30 or so collections in 8 or so western nations, chief among them the British Museum in London.

Collectors’ guilt

Two world wars and the decolonisation of most of most of the European empires later, many of these institutions felt guilty about being party to such epic looting of China’s cultural heritage. In 1973 the British Library was founded. In the 1980s the British Museum handed over its hoard of documents from the Library Cave to the British Library.

Founding of the International Dunhuang Programme

In 1994, after much discussion between the various European and American institutions which owned documents from the library cave, the British Library was instrumental in setting up the International Dunhuang Programme (IDP). The IDP is a pioneering international collaboration that brings together online collections from the Eastern Silk Roads and promotes understandings of the history and cultures of the region.

That was 30 years and so this small but beautifully formed exhibition marks the thirtieth birthday of the International Dunhuang Programme. (All this is explained in the final part of the exhibition, which includes a timeline of the events I’ve just summarised.)

The exhibition

The exhibition showcases over 50 manuscripts, printed documents and pictorial works, most though not all, from the ‘Library Cave’ in the cave complex of Mogao and on public display for the first time.

The exhibition is contained in one long room downstairs. The light levels are low to preserve these ancient manuscripts which contributes to the subterranean, treasure-trove vibe.

The show is divided into ten sections, consisting of eight display cases (4 down the middle, 2 embedded in either wall). At the far end there’s a partition cleverly made from shelves piled high with rolled-up paper scrolls, recreating the effect of the original treasure cave. And off to one side there’s a bench seating about 5 people in front of a video projected on the wall which shows general views of the desert, the Mogoao cave complex, and handy maps showing the shifting silk roads and indicating the spread of religious beliefs along them. You can make out most of the elements I’ve listed in the photo below (video on the right, display cases down the middle, the scroll partition is visible at the far left).

Installation view of ‘A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang’ at the British Library

Topics and stories

The key thing about the displays is that the curators have had the bright idea of dividing the documents into sections grouped around typical types of profession from medieval central Asian society. Each case is named after one of these characteristic professions of the time, constellates around the story of a specific named individual who we know of from a scroll, and then groups around it half a dozen other manuscripts from the same subject area. Thus the cases are named after:

• The Merchant
• The Diplomat
• The Fortune-Teller
• The Artist
• The Scribe
• The Printer
• The Buddhist Nun
• The Lay Buddhist

Installation view of ‘A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang’ at the British Library showing a typical display case, in this instance scrolls relating to The Lay Buddhist (see below) (photo by the author)

As is my usual practice, all the text which follows in italics is direct quotation from the curators’ wall labels.

The Merchant (unnamed)

As a key trade centre on the Silk Roads, Dunhuang attracted merchants from as far afield as central Asia and India. Among these were the Sogdians, a group of Iranian people who dominated commerce in the region from the 4th to the 8th century. From their motherland near Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan), Sogdian merchants established settlements stretching all the way to China.

Map showing location of Sogdiana © the British Library

This allowed them to act as agents for fellow Sogdians back home and along the trade network. Sogdian merchants sold many prized goods and transmitted religious ideas from their own culture and that of nearby regions.

Earthenware figure from China (7th to 10th century) probably representing a central Asian merchant, possibly of Sogdian origins, as suggested by his large beard and conical hat (photo by the author)

This section focuses on the letter written by an unnamed Sogdian merchant based near Dunhuang, which was addressed to two of his business partners in Samarkand, over 3,000 km to the west. It warns them about the devastating effects of political instability in China. The letter describes the famine that resulted from the sack of several Chinese cities by the Huns, a nomadic people from central Asia.

It also includes a letter from a wife who was abandoned by her husband at Dunhuang and who writes to reproach him in 313 AD. Her name was Miwnay and the letter tells us she moved from Samarkand to Dunhuang with her merchant husband Nanai-dhat. This letter was found in a lost mailbag and complains how, not having not heard from him in three years, Miwnay and her daughter Shayn have become destitute and forced to serve a local Chinese household.

“Behold, I am living wretchedly, and I consider myself dead. […] I obeyed your command and came to Dunhuang and did not observe my mother’s bidding or that of my brothers. Surely the gods were angry with me on the day when I did your bidding! I would rather be a dog’s or a pig’s wife than yours!” (Translated by Nicholas Sims-Williams)

Emphasising the theme of multiculturalism, this section also includes:

• one of the oldest surviving Zoroastrian scriptures, consisting of a text about the prophet Zoroaster (born between 1500 and 500 BC) and a transcription of the holy ‘Ashem Vohu’ prayer
• a letter from a Christian priest named Sergius to a Turkic government official based at Dunhuang

Dunhuang Limes

I need to digress for a moment about the Dunhuang Limes.

The Dunhuang Limes is a series of military sites spread over a distance of more than 140 miles, and are considered to be parts of the westernmost portion of the Great Wall. The sites begin in Anxi to the east of Dunhuang and extend to the Lop Nor desert to the west, and date back as far as the 2nd century BC [see the map at the top of this review for the line of the Great Wall].

The term limes, usually used to describe Roman military roads and their fortifications, was assigned by Aurel Stein to this series of watchtowers, forts, storehouses, beacon towers, walls, and other defensive structures. The items excavated from the sites reveal much about the daily life and administration of the garrisons stationed at the frontiers of the Chinese Empire. These items include tools, stationery, pottery, arrowheads and textiles, as well as important written documents including the Sogdian ‘ancient letters’.

Hence the shoe:

A shoe made of hemp from Dunhuang Limes © the British Museum

This utilitarian everyday object serves as a poignant reminder of the early settlers who resided along the Dunhuang Limes. These defensive walls and watchtowers, constructed north of the town, protected the territory then ruled by the Chinese Han Empire (206 BC to 220 AD). Doubling as farmers, the soldiers transformed the rugged landscape into cultivated land, while monitoring the desert Silk Roads for potential attacks.

The booklets

Another digression to mention that each of the characters or job types is introduced not only via the usual object labels but in nifty printed booklets (attached to each display case) made of a kind of artificial vellum and decorated with patterns from the period. Some thought and effort went into these and they’re very stylish.

One of the stylish fake-vellum booklets which contain object information in ‘A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang’ at the British Library (photo by the author)

The Diplomat: Ca Kima-sana

From the 10th century, the rulers of Dunhuang strengthened their ties with Khotan, a central Asian kingdom located 1,800 km to the west. Sent by their state, Khotanese envoys frequently travelled to the oasis to help maintain close diplomatic relations, especially by seeking marriage alliances.

Map showing location of Khotan © the British Library

Khotanese delegations varied in size and were hosted by the local government. Their members, who spoke an Indo-Iranian dialect, had to operate in a multilingual environment. They were actively engaged in Dunhuang’s Buddhist community as patrons and helped spread medical and geographical knowledge during their visits.

This section is named for two figures: one is Sam Khina Hvam Samgaka, a high-ranking Khotanese official who commissioned a devotional scroll, wishing for a long life and the well-being of his relatives. The manuscript is over 21 metres long and contains six different Buddhist texts. It was embellished with an opulent silk painting.

Scroll in Sanskrit and Khotanese, over 21 metres long, embellished with an opulent silk painting (943 AD) © British Library

The other named figure is the diplomat Ca Kima-sana, also known as Zhang Jinshan. He is represented by a long scroll in which he explains that he led a delegation of over 100 people to secure the hand of a Chinese princess for their king. He also recounts the religious activities he undertook at Dunhuang in exchange for safe return. This section also includes:

• a tenth-century Chinese-Khotanese phrasebook
• an account of hospitality given to foreign visitors at Dunhuang between 979 and 982
• a Khotanese translation of the Siddhasara, a medical text attributed to the ancient Indian physician Ravigupta

The Fortune-Teller: Shenzhi, the Yin and Yang Master

Fortune-tellers, whose practices were regulated by the local administration, helped both the ruling elite and ordinary people navigate daily life. They advised on anything from the best time to start a construction project to the best direction to take on a journey. They also guided people when choosing a life partner, looking for lost things or strategising for battles.

Fortune-tellers produced calendars and other astrological works. These were considered a form of scientific knowledge, normally controlled by China’s imperial court. At the same time, divination traditions from central Asia spread along the Silk Roads and converged at Dunhuang, leading to a unique blend of approaches.

This section includes a striking almanac:

Official almanac showing the 12 spirits of the zodiac animals, portrayed as officials with animals in their hats (978 AD) © British Library Board

An almanac is a yearly publication that typically contains information such as astronomical data and astrological predictions. This incomplete document for the year 978 is a copy of the almanac originally printed by the imperial Chinese Bureau of Astronomy. It shows the 12 spirits of the zodiac animals, portrayed as officials with animals in their hat. They surround the deity Taisui, who is associated with Jupiter and governs people’s destiny in a given year.

This section also contains:

• the longest surviving manuscript text in the Old Turkic script, the Irk Bitig or Book of Omens, a 4-metre-long Tibetan divination scroll written in Old Turkic which contains 65 divinations
• the oldest star chart from any civilisation which depicts 1,345 stars across 13 maps, dating to the second half of the 7th century
• a 4-metre long divination scroll in Tibetan, featuring 12 divination diagrams in the Chinese astrological tradition
• eight diagrams linked to a divination form known as the ‘Nine Palaces’ which indicate lucky and unlucky dates and directions for construction work, in a scroll which belonged to Shenzhi,
  a Yin and Yang Master and a monk at the Longxing Temple

The Printer: Lei Yanmei, the woodblock carver

Using a method derived from earlier stamping processes, printers chiselled content in reverse into woodblocks. They then inked those blocks and impressed them onto paper. The quality of the prints thus depended on their woodcarving skills. Printing technology emerged in China around the 7th century, about 700 years before appearing in Europe. The work of printers quickly became essential for Buddhists, as a way of enabling the large-scale reproduction of sacred texts and images. As printing spread to East Asia and to central Asia along the Silk Roads, printers set up many local workshops. While some places, like Sichuan, became major printing centres, Dunhuang printers also produced, on a much smaller scale, copies of Buddhist scriptures, prayer sheets and almanacs.

The Diamond Sutra, the world’s earliest printed book with a date, 868 AD

This 5 metre scroll is the oldest complete printed book with a date. Preceding the finely carved text is a depiction of the Buddha preaching to his elder disciple, Subhuti, amid a large assembly. Such sophisticated design attests to a mature printing industry, calling for collaboration between highly skilled artists, scribes and woodcarvers. It is thus possible it came from Chengdu, Sichuan, which was a major printing centre at the time.

This section also includes:

• a text containing numerous identical images of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
• a woodblock printed prayer sheet with pigments
• a booklet of Diamond Sutra translated by Kumarajiva

The Scribe: Ke’u Monley

Between 786 and 848, Dunhuang came under Tibetan rule. It was transformed into a bustling centre for scribes who worked for the Tibetan empire.

The Tibetan Empire in the 8th to 9th centuries © the British Library

Local scribes, some of whom were from mixed Chinese and Tibetan parentage, produced thousands of copies of Buddhist sutras in Tibetan. These works, presented in a range of formats, were even distributed to monastic libraries in central Tibet. The rules of the scriptorium were stringent and scribes had to manage the resources they received carefully for fear of punishment. They were also taught to write in different styles, tailored to their tasks, such as transcribing sacred texts or drafting official documents. 

This section includes:

• old Tibetan annals giving a year-by-year account for the period 641 to 764, the earliest surviving historical source on the Tibetan empire
• a bilingual manuscript which features the Tibetan version of the Lankavatara Sutra in red ink alongside a Chinese commentary in black ink
• a large book of Buddhist scripture titled The Perfection of Wisdom Sutra
• a document giving information about the scribe Ke’u Monley who belonged to a team of scribes entrusted with copying the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra for the Tibetan prince
• along with some original scribal tools, namely a glue brush and a wooden pen

Tibetan woodslip pen (eighth to tenth century) © British Library Board

The artist: Dong Baode

Artists from different regions shaped Dunhuang’s creative landscape. The projects they were commissioned for ranged from adorning the Mogao Caves with breathtaking murals and stucco figures, to crafting portable paintings on silk, hemp and paper. Surviving sketches, preparatory drawings and tools like stencils offer a window into artists’ creative process. While workshops likely existed earlier, a government-supported painting academy emerged in the 10th century, providing official backing for artistic endeavours. Most artists remained anonymous unless they reached a particularly elevated status. They combined visual traditions and techniques from along the Silk Roads, leaving an enduring legacy through their contributions.

Sketch of protective deities (tenth century) © British Library Board

These two figures, depicted on thick paper, stand dynamically on rocks, almost mirroring each other. Precise lines render their flowing scarves, flexed muscles and facial hair. This type of sketch served as a reference for artists and could have been resized as needed to fit across various compositions. Very similar illustrations are found in Dunhuang manuscripts.

This section contains:

• a stencil of a Buddha figure
• a scroll relating to the master painter named b who other documents tell us managed a local painting guild, controlled and deployed painting resources
• a 1.2 metre tall black ink study representing Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion

The Lay Buddhist: the 80-year-old who wrote in blood

Buddhism left the largest imprint at Dunhuang, although faiths such as Daoism, Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism were also present. With the spread of Buddhism on the Silk Roads, the oasis became a major hub for Buddhist worship and pilgrimage from the 4th century onwards. The worship of images, through portable paintings and other media, held a central place in Buddhism. Copying scriptures was also paramount to Buddhist devotees, as a way of accumulating spiritual benefits. While wealthy patrons could commission elaborately decorated manuscripts, ordinary people wrote sacred texts themselves. Manuscripts served various functions, as reflected by the variety of formats and languages they came in. They could be chanted during ceremonies, worn as talismans and employed in memorial services.

Illustrated Sutra of the Ten Kings (tenth century) © British Library Board

This scripture depicts the purgatory-like period following death. The Ten Kings, shown as magistrates seated at desks, assess the deeds of the departed. The last king spins the wheel of rebirth, deciding how they will be reincarnated. This handscroll is almost 5 metres long. It was likely produced to assist a dead relative in their voyage to the next life and used during memorial services.

This section also contains:

• a decorative copy of the Great Parinirvana Sutra
• a miniature Tibetan scroll less than 5cm wide, containing verses about the path to liberation from the sufferings of death and rebirth, and a prayer to end the reincarnation cycle
• a scroll of the Nilakantha Dharani, dharanis being incantations believed to be protective and to generate spiritual benefits when chanted
• a banner painting of a bodhisattva
• and three small booklets of the Diamond Sutra in Chinese written by an unknown 80-year-old devotee using his own blood as ink

The Buddhist Nun: Deng Ziyi

Buddhism gradually changed the lives of female devotees by offering them a role beyond those of daughter, mother and wife: they could become nuns. Dunhuang documents give us a glimpse into their experiences, from joining as novices, sometimes before the regulatory age of 12, to embracing the rules of monastic discipline upon being ordained. Between 800 and 1000, there were more nuns than monks living in the town. Censuses provide a sense of the community structure and demographics within nunneries at the time. It was not uncommon for nuns to retain some possessions after embracing monastic life. They could also play a significant role in the local lay community.

Rules of a women’s association (959 AD) © British Library Board

This circular is over 1,000 years old. It defines the objectives, bylaws and structure of a women’s club, established to promote friendship among women. All 15 signatories agreed to these rules by signing a mark under their name. The association was overseen by a nun, underscoring the influential role of nuns within the Dunhuang community.

This section includes:

• information about Deng Ziyi who became a nun aged just 10 in 914, including the official permit granting her permission to become a novice
• a finely calligraphed scroll copied in 543 by a nun named Xianyu listing the voluntary commitments for fully ordained Buddhist women
• a tenth century list of nuns at the Dasheng Temple, the largest of five nunneries at Dunhuang, which had a total of 209 members
• a votive painting depicting the 11-headed manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion
• the will, written in 865, of the nun Linghui, written in the presence of witnesses, including close relatives and two officials

The caves

As I mentioned, at the far end of the exhibition space is an alcove partitioned off by a floor-to-ceiling stand containing scores of rolled-up paper mimicking the scrolls found in the famous Library Cave.

Installation view of ‘A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang’ at the British Library showing the scroll partition (photo by the author)

This space gives more detail about the caves, namely:

Away from the busy streets of Dunhuang, 25 km southeast of the town, is a large Buddhist site made up of hundreds of richly decorated caves called the Mogao Caves. It is here that, in 1900, the Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu found a small room containing tens of thousands of manuscripts, paintings and other objects dating from the 5th to 11th century. Known as the ‘Library Cave’ or Cave 17, this extraordinary time capsule is one of the world’s greatest archaeological discoveries. It has revolutionised our knowledge of the Silk Roads, offering glimpses of religious and secular everyday life. Many of the objects in the exhibition are from Cave 17. They were acquired by archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein and taken to the UK.

There’s:

• a copy of Stein’s photo album open to the photo he took of Wang
• a timeline of key events starting at Wang’s discovery of cave 17 in 1900 and continuing up to the opening of this exhibition
• more objects including:
  • a confessional book of the Manichaean Uyghurs
  • three Buddhist ritual objects, being: a paper-cut flower; a carved wooden figure of a Buddha; a Tibetan tantric ritual implement
• a small sculpture by modern artist Xie Xiaoze titled ‘Rain of Languages (Buddhist Sutras)’

Rain of Languages (Buddhist Sutras) by Xie Xiaoze (2023) in ‘A Silk Road Oasis’ at the British Library

Most usefully, there was a small monitor showing photos of some of the decorated caves. These are mind blowing, showing beautifully preserved caves decorated from floor-to-ceiling with complicated colourful motifs and often including one or more statues of the Buddha or Boddhisatvas. I think these should have been included in the short film projection on the wall at the start of the exhibition, they’re too stunning and important to be stashed away here, and on a fairly tiny screen, smaller than a laptop screen.

Photo from the slideshow of photos of the interiors of some of the Mogao cave, complete with explanatory text. Courtesy of Dunhuang Academy, Photo by Sun Zhijun

In fact the friend I showed them to said these are stunning, mind-blowing, amazing – they should have been blown up and printed on the walls life-size. Maybe, although space is limited in this little downstairs gallery. But they certainly impress on you the huge culturual importance of the cave complex, the extravagantly beautiful carvings and frescoes, make you realise it’s up there with the Egyptian Valley of the Kings in terms of priceless decorated ancient interiors.

Music

I haven’t yet mentioned that this room packed full of priceless manuscripts also features a mellow and evocative soundscape. This has been created by a Dr Xiaoshi Wei using recordings from the British Library’s vast sound archive and from the China Database for Traditional Music with a view to recreating the sounds of the ancient Silk Road. Birds sing, gongs sound, monks chant, adding to the atmosphere of peace, calm, civilisation and enlightenment.

This is a small-ish exhibition, but full of wonders and revelations.

Related links

• A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang continues at the British Library until 23 February 2025
• International Dunhuang Programme
• Mogao Caves UESCO World Heritage site

Related reviews

• Silk Roads @ the British Museum (September 2024)