DUNHUANG, China - China's most spectacular cache of Buddhist caves has endured countless assaults over the centuries - earthquakes and floods, plundering foreign explorers and even the smoky cooking fires of Russian soldiers, who sheltered in these beautifully painted quarters in the 1920s.

Between the 4th and 14th centuries, the nearly 500 hand-carved caves at Mogao Grottoes in the Gobi Desert were decorated by monks, merchants, and Chinese government officials known as mandarins. The cave paintings are a window into life on the historic Silk Road, the trade routes that connected Europe and Asia.

Today the caves are facing a new source of danger: modern tourists.

Carrying bulky backpacks and exhaling humid breath, tourists are arriving in ever-greater numbers each year, and slowly damaging the caves they come so far to see.

Sutras And Non-Religious Records

The Mogao Grottoes received 26,000 visitors in 1979, the first year they were open to the public. This year, up to 1 million tourists are expected.

But thanks to Chinese experts at the Dunhuang Academy and their long-time partners at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, a long-term plan has been put in place to protect the treasures of Mogao, and also give them more international exposure.

A $50 million visitor center opened this month. Its futuristic form resembles the sand dunes of the surrounding landscape. Designed by Beijing architect Cui Kai, the complex features two theaters that show state-of-the-art films of the grottoes, or small caves. The conservationists hope the films will allow tourists to better understand the caves, and spend less time in them, doing less damage.

Today, most of the visitors to the site are from within China. In order to introduce the caves to a wider international audience, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles will host a major exhibition on the complex starting in May 2016.

Aside from the paintings, the caves are also famous for housing an extensive library of Buddhist manuscripts, sutras (Buddhist religious teachings), and non-religious records in languages including Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur and Khotanese. Many of these documents were purchased by foreign explorers and academic scholars in the 20th century, and shipped to the U.S. or Europe. Now, the Getty museum is trying to get many of those artifacts back.

Since the Getty Conservation Institute was founded in 1985, its researchers have worked on many high-profile World Heritage Sites, including the Tomb of Queen Nefertari and the Great Sphinx in Egypt. A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as having cultural or natural significance.

Conserving The Caves

Getty's scientists have been working with the Dunhuang Academy for 25 years, making it the institution's longest-running project.

Its efforts in China represent "some of the best work we've ever done in the field," said Tim Whalen, director of the Getty Conservation Institute.

The conservationists at the Getty have been working to conserve, or protect, the caves. The first step is to survey the caves, examine them carefully and understand the materials used to make the paintings. Then the scientists can determine the threats - like damage from sand and high humidity.

Neville Agnew, the Getty's top specialist on the caves, has been visiting Dunhuang since the late 1980s - more than 50 times overall. He's seen the area change from an isolated location with no modern airport to a place that may attract 1 million people this year.

China's economic boom, a sharp and fast growth in the economy, has made many more people rich and given them enough money to travel to places like the Mogao Grottoes.

"You didn't need to stretch your imagination much to see what might happen in the future," Agnew said.

At Mogao, the Getty team developed a comprehensive plan to conserve the caves and monitor conditions at the site. The plan was implemented over the last decade at Cave No. 85 as a demonstration project.

The China Principles

The paintings are a rich collection of Buddhist art. They illustrate sutras and other stories important to Buddhism. But their significance isn't only religious. They also are important sources of historical information from the times they were painted. Researchers have used the paintings to learn about ancient Chinese clothing, dance, musical instruments, wresting, polo, archery and even a sport known as "elephant lifting."

The caves also contain many religious sculptures, including a 1,300-year-old Buddha draped in orange robes that extends more than 100 feet high and nearly 40 feet wide.

Cave No. 85 may be receiving special attention, but a bigger plan was also needed. Getty specialists worked with Chinese and Australian governments to establish the China Principles - national guidelines for conserving and managing important cultural heritage sites.

China has vast numbers of historic sites, but managing them was not consistent. The China Principles filled a critical gap.

At Mogao, the team crunched numbers on just how many sightseers the cave complex could accommodate.

"These are questions facing World Heritage Sites everywhere - how do you preserve them and still ensure access for the public and scholars?" Whalen said. "But there are not a lot of organizations investing in research that finds answers to these questions."

Visitor Center Shows Films

According to the research by Getty and the Dunhuang Academy, the site could only handle 3,000 tourists a day - a number that seemed unrealistically low given the growing interest in the grottoes. At the same time, Dunhuang Academy wanted to digitize the caves by taking detailed photographs of every painting.

The films address both issues: a reason to digitize the caves, and a way to protect the caves by giving tourists other interesting things to do at the site.

The new visitor center shows two films lasting twenty minutes each. One introduces the history of Dunhuang and the Silk Road, while the other, projected on a dome-like screen, immerses visitors in the cave paintings, soaring over scenes of concerts, village life and dancing angel-like apsaras (spirits).

The slow and painstaking process of photographing every inch of seven caves took seven months. It took two more years to complete the films.

Now, visitors start by watching the films, before being bused to the grottoes, where they can visit eight to 10 caves. The number of visitors to Mogao is now capped at 6,000 per day and reservations are required.

"Ideally, these methods can be adapted at other sites, both in China and elsewhere in the world," said Wang Xudong of the Dunhuang Academy.]]>