Shanxi Province, a major cultural relic province, launches an investigation into cave temples to protect the crystallization of Chinese and Western cultures

　　China News Service, Taiyuan, November 13 (Reporter Hu Jian) ​​On the 13th, Shanxi Province, a cultural relics province, launched an 8-month special survey of cave temples, which will reveal the immovable cultural relics of cave temples (including cliff statues) excavated in the province before 1911 Start investigation and research.

　　The focus of this investigation is the cave temples before the Song Dynasty, including the review of the registered immovable cultural relics of the cave temples, as well as the investigation and registration of the newly discovered immovable cultural relics of the cave temple.

　　The contents of the investigation included the basic conditions of the cave temple (including the cliff statues), preservation conditions and main risks, protection management conditions and safety precautions.

The team responsible for this investigation included the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Ancient Architecture and Painted Mural Conservation, the Yungang Grottoes Institute, and the Department of Archaeology, School of History and Culture, Shanxi University.

　　According to Yan Hongbin, director of the Cultural Relics Conservation and Restoration Research Office of the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute, in March this year, Datong conducted a pre-investigation of the cave temples, and 4 new sites were added during the census.

In the third national census of cultural relics, 18 cave temples were registered in Datong.

　　Yan Hongbin believes that taking the Yungang Grottoes in Datong as an example, most of China’s cave temples are located in Luoyang, Dunhuang, Xinjiang, and Sichuan and Chongqing. These areas have frequent cultural exchanges between China and the West. The resulting cave temples are the exchanges between Chinese civilization and other ancient civilizations. Jian’s historical testimony.

This investigation will provide a more systematic understanding of the preservation status of Chinese cave temples, which is conducive to more scientific protection.

　　According to the data of the third national cultural relic survey, there are 244 cave temples and 254 cliff statues in Shanxi.

According to Shanxi's official requirements, the investigation of the cave temple will be completed from now until the end of June 2021.

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