China's Dunhuang, French museum to co-build database of Mogao Grottoes

LANZHOU/PARIS, April 4 (Xinhua) -- China's Dunhuang Academy and France's Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts have collaborated to create a digital resource library in the Library Cave of the millennium-old Mogao Grottoes.

The Mogao Grottoes is a UNESCO World Heritage site boasting rich collections of Buddhist artworks in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province.

The two institutes have recently signed a memorandum of cooperation and are expected to carry out systematic research, restoration and protection of cultural relics in the Mogao Grottoes, and to hold international academic seminars on cultural relics research, protection and digital humanities and so on.

France is one of the countries with the largest collection of Dunhuang cultural relics in the world. The two countries have long conducted bilateral cooperation in the exchanges, preservation and resource sharing of Dunhuang culture and art, according to the Dunhuang Academy.

Built between the 4th and 14th centuries, the Mogao Grottoes are home to a vast collection of Buddhist artworks, with more than 2,000 colored sculptures and 45,000 square meters of murals located in 735 caves, carved along the cliffs by ancient worshippers. ■