Daren
The Caves of the Ten Thousand Buddha's or the Mongao Caves sit on the edge of two massive deserts, the Taklamakan and the Gobi in Gansu Province or Chinese Turkestan as it was known at the turn of the (20th) century. It is a perfect climatically controlled and dry place to have housed paper scrolls, providing they were to remain undisturbed. For around a thousand years they were undisturbed, but shortly before Aurel Stein travelled to Chinese Turkestan thousands of paper scrolls and silk paintings were discovered in one of the caves, banked up by sand for centuries, and were minded by a caretaker Abbot established at the caves.
Aurel Stein (later to become Sir Aurel Stein), Hungarian born, British archaeologist who had made an expeditionary journey into Turkestan in 1900/1901 made a longer expedition in 1906 to 1908 - and this is the primary topic of this biography by author couple Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters.
While Stein was not the only European treasure hunter in Chinese Turkestan in the decades before or after this expedition, he is recognised as one of the most successful ones - and therefore is accused of theft of the Chinese artifacts and the removal of these from China. Stein, of course, is not the only one accused of this, he was simply more successful than Le Coq, Pelliot, Warner and the others. The counter argument for the pillaging of another country's artifacts (scrolls, but also wall murals of which a number were removed) is that they would have been destroyed by looters seeking treasure, or religious objectors incensed by images, or destroyed by soldiers etc, etc as the country in question was unable or unwilling to protect them from harm, had the British (etc) not taken them to protect them.
The authors suggest that Stein is not well remembered as an explorer and archaeologist, but I have certainly heard plenty about him... but maybe I read this location and topic more than the average reader! P241-242
Indestructible as Stein appeared in life, in death his name has not been so enduring. He has sunk from memory as quietly and almost as thoroughly as one of his sand-buried cities.
Many factors have contributed to this. At the time of his death, the world's attention was focused elsewhere, convulsed by the Second World War. His death was hardly dramatic, untimely explorer's demise, even if he was poised to embark on a journey few octogenarians would contemplate today. He was not murdered on a Hawaiian beach like Captain James Cook or frozen in the Antarctic like Robert Scott. He remained a reserved, conservative, scholarly man and his writings reflect that. Even his 'popular' accounts are largely devoid of the colorful adventures and anecdotes of Albert von Le Coq or Sven Hedin... the public was far more dazzled by the discoveries of others than by what Stein found.
Agamemnon's mask has immortalised Heinrich Schliemann's name, Tutankhamen's tomb Howard Carter. Stein did not return with gold, jewels or richly decorated sarcophagi. His greatest finds were scrolls. He dies just as the sun set on colonialism, imperialism and the British Empire, which left their own troublesome legacy. The Great Game ended, India became independent, China and Russia locked their doors and Central Asia was off-limits to the West.
A wide-sweeping quote, and no doubt accurate, but one of the scrolls Stein recovered (of several thousand he convinced the caretaker to part with, in exchange for silver with which to refurbish the caves) was the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist religious text - not especially important for the sutra, but because it was block-printed and is thought to be the oldest surviving example of a printed book, dated at 868. As such this is one of the most valued of the scrolls in possession of the British Museum.
As well as a reasonably full biography of Stein, including more briefly his expeditions before and after the 1906-08 one to Chinese Turkestan, this book covers the movements of the museum collections during the war, when London was (correctly) considered at risk of enemy bombing - the collection was moved to a Welsh library, and later a climate controlled cave! It also covers some of the impact the Diamond Sutra had on society, the arts and culture after it's discovery, some light history of the Silk Road and Steins travel routes and methods. As well as being shown to be organised, thorough and meticulous in his planning and work, Stein is also shown to be thoroughly devoted to his goals (and dog(s) Dash), often at the expense of personal relationships and his health, although he thought very highly of his Chinese assistant Chiang and the friendship he built with him.
But this review is becoming excessively long, so I will cease!
5 stars
The Caves of the Ten Thousand Buddha's or the Mongao Caves sit on the edge of two massive deserts, the Taklamakan and the Gobi in Gansu Province or Chinese Turkestan as it was known at the turn of the (20th) century. It is a perfect climatically controlled and dry place to have housed paper scrolls, providing they were to remain undisturbed. For around a thousand years they were undisturbed, but shortly before Aurel Stein travelled to Chinese Turkestan thousands of paper scrolls and silk paintings were discovered in one of the caves, banked up by sand for centuries, and were minded by a caretaker Abbot established at the caves.
Aurel Stein (later to become Sir Aurel Stein), Hungarian born, British archaeologist who had made an expeditionary journey into Turkestan in 1900/1901 made a longer expedition in 1906 to 1908 - and this is the primary topic of this biography by author couple Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters.
While Stein was not the only European treasure hunter in Chinese Turkestan in the decades before or after this expedition, he is recognised as one of the most successful ones - and therefore is accused of theft of the Chinese artifacts and the removal of these from China. Stein, of course, is not the only one accused of this, he was simply more successful than Le Coq, Pelliot, Warner and the others. The counter argument for the pillaging of another country's artifacts (scrolls, but also wall murals of which a number were removed) is that they would have been destroyed by looters seeking treasure, or religious objectors incensed by images, or destroyed by soldiers etc, etc as the country in question was unable or unwilling to protect them from harm, had the British (etc) not taken them to protect them.
The authors suggest that Stein is not well remembered as an explorer and archaeologist, but I have certainly heard plenty about him... but maybe I read this location and topic more than the average reader! P241-242
Indestructible as Stein appeared in life, in death his name has not been so enduring. He has sunk from memory as quietly and almost as thoroughly as one of his sand-buried cities.
Many factors have contributed to this. At the time of his death, the world's attention was focused elsewhere, convulsed by the Second World War. His death was hardly dramatic, untimely explorer's demise, even if he was poised to embark on a journey few octogenarians would contemplate today. He was not murdered on a Hawaiian beach like Captain James Cook or frozen in the Antarctic like Robert Scott. He remained a reserved, conservative, scholarly man and his writings reflect that. Even his 'popular' accounts are largely devoid of the colorful adventures and anecdotes of Albert von Le Coq or Sven Hedin... the public was far more dazzled by the discoveries of others than by what Stein found.
Agamemnon's mask has immortalised Heinrich Schliemann's name, Tutankhamen's tomb Howard Carter. Stein did not return with gold, jewels or richly decorated sarcophagi. His greatest finds were scrolls. He dies just as the sun set on colonialism, imperialism and the British Empire, which left their own troublesome legacy. The Great Game ended, India became independent, China and Russia locked their doors and Central Asia was off-limits to the West.
A wide-sweeping quote, and no doubt accurate, but one of the scrolls Stein recovered (of several thousand he convinced the caretaker to part with, in exchange for silver with which to refurbish the caves) was the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist religious text - not especially important for the sutra, but because it was block-printed and is thought to be the oldest surviving example of a printed book, dated at 868. As such this is one of the most valued of the scrolls in possession of the British Museum.
As well as a reasonably full biography of Stein, including more briefly his expeditions before and after the 1906-08 one to Chinese Turkestan, this book covers the movements of the museum collections during the war, when London was (correctly) considered at risk of enemy bombing - the collection was moved to a Welsh library, and later a climate controlled cave! It also covers some of the impact the Diamond Sutra had on society, the arts and culture after it's discovery, some light history of the Silk Road and Steins travel routes and methods. As well as being shown to be organised, thorough and meticulous in his planning and work, Stein is also shown to be thoroughly devoted to his goals (and dog(s) Dash), often at the expense of personal relationships and his health, although he thought very highly of his Chinese assistant Chiang and the friendship he built with him.
But this review is becoming excessively long, so I will cease!
5 stars