今天纽约时报有一篇很好的关于敦煌石窟及其保护的文章,Buddha’s Caves (By Holland Cotter) 还有一套很棒的图像,带有英文说明。

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/06/arts/0706-COTT_index.html
正好明天会跟美国学生讲到一些文化保存和数字化项目,有两个大的多国合作项目值得关注,也是学者可以查到珍贵材料的地方。中国国家图书馆在数字敦煌项目中是中方主要负责单位,很多人默默无闻在整理、扫描、数字修复,以及出版这些数字文献。
1. The Mellon International Dunhuang Archive (MIDA)
http://www.artstor.org/what-is-artstor/w-html/col-mellon-dunhuang.shtml
主要是对壁画和雕塑乃至全部洞穴的数字化展现。
High-quality digital reconstructions of the mural paintings and related art and texts associated with the several hundred Buddhist cave shrines in Dunhuang, China, a uniquely important cultural crossroads on the ancient Silk Route in the Gobi Desert.
2. International Dunhuang Project (IDP)
http://idp.bl.uk/
主要是敦煌文物(写本、绘画、纺织品、器物),通过图片和元数据检索,可以见到高分辨率的图像。
Tens of thousands of images along with catalogues, translations, historical photographs, archaeological site plans and much more are already freely available to all on the IDP DATABASE. This multilingual website and database is hosted by IDP's members in Britain, China, Russia, Japan and Germany.
我前几年曾经到数字敦煌在国家图书馆的办公室参观过,映像很深。现在技术条件可能更好了。
大件的扫描,就像人做MRI一样!


小件(卷子)的扫描,一段段做,要很小心,然后用photoshop处理:


