Reporter: Ran Wenjuan
This is a "rescue" that has lasted for nearly nine years, and experts in ancient books are fighting day and night to "rebirth" the nearly damaged precious ancient Tibetan books as soon as possible.
At the moment, this "wrestle" with time is still going on.
In October 2013, a large number of precious loose leaves of ancient Tibetan books were discovered at Baiga Temple in Longzi County, Shannan City, Tibet Autonomous Region, and rescue work began immediately.
After excavation, sorting, restoration, and digital sampling, these ancient books gradually regained their brilliance.
Cai Luo, deputy director of the Ancient Books Department of the Tibet Autonomous Region Library (District Ancient Books Protection Center), told reporters from China News Agency about the story that lasted for nearly nine years and was still going on. It also told the story of Tibet’s "book protector" Qianshan Tingxue. , The daily life of searching ancient books.
The staff of the Tibet Autonomous Region Ancient Books Protection Center and college student volunteers took a group photo after collating the ancient books.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Digging with bare hands in a gap of less than 1 meter for 3 days
Ancient books loose leaves filled with 68 woven bags
The reappearance of these ancient books is due to accident.
In October 2013, Baiga Temple started the repair work, and scattered leaves of ancient books were found in the northeast corner of the Dukang Hall of the temple.
Experts appraised a few of them and found that these loose leaves were manuscripts from the 12th to 13th centuries and were extremely valuable.
In the second year, the Tibet Autonomous Region Ancient Books Conservation Center listed the rescue of ancient books unearthed in the temple as an important annual work sequence and took rescue arrangements and protection measures in October of that year.
The ancient temples on the border are few and deserted.
The "hiding" place of ancient books is also unexpected.
Cai Luo recalled that these ancient books were buried between two walls, about 3 meters high and less than 1 meter wide.
The narrow space, the dark sight, and the dust accumulated over the years make the excavation work extremely difficult. In order not to cause damage to the ancient books as much as possible, the staff excavated with bare hands and must climb up to rest and breathe at intervals of about ten minutes.
Unearthed loose leaves of ancient Tibetan books.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
The excavation work lasted 3 days before it was over.
Due to the poor conditions of the temple at that time, the loose leaves of ancient books were temporarily put into woven bags, full of 68 bags.
The loose leaves of these ancient books, which seem to have serious adhesion and "unkempt appearance", amazed everyone.
"From what I can see, these ancient manuscripts and prints are available, and their size, binding, and content are not the same. It can be presumed that they have extremely high research value." Cai Luo said that the unearthed ancient books encouraged everyone, and the sorting work began immediately. .
The staff identified the loose leaves of ancient books.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Sorted out 366 ancient books for 23 consecutive days
Some are one person taller
Sorting out ancient books, dust removal is the first step.
Cai Luo introduced that dust accumulated on ancient books over the years, and filled the air with a slight movement.
Even if the staff wear two layers of masks and protective clothing, they cannot avoid the "invasion", and often people become "gray-headed" at the end of a day's work.
The dust on the loose leaves of ancient books fell to the ground.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
The work is gradually carried out from coarse to fine.
Everyone should separate the engraved and manuscripts first, and then proceed to the next step of classification according to the content.
“We squatted on the ground to check a leaf. The first few days were easy, but as the various large and small documents on the ground became more and more spread, the classification became more complicated, and finally there was nowhere to go on the ground.” Cai Luo said. .
The staff spread the loose leaves on the ground and sorted them.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Because of this, the patience and professionalism of the staff must be online at the same time.
Especially for those ancient books that seem to have unclear characteristics, experts who are proficient in ancient books need to appraise them.
Cai Luo introduced that in order to improve the efficiency of collation, the Tibet Autonomous Region Kagyupa documentary expert Resa Gong Juejatso and the former Drepung monk scholar Ngawang Peijie were invited to participate in the entire process of the collation work. There is also one who is over 6 years old. Ten local experts have always insisted on working with everyone.
Work starts at 9:30 every day and ends when it gets dark. After 23 days of continuous "fighting" by the staff, these ancient books and loose leaves have been preliminarily sorted out. A total of 366 letter manuscripts and block-printed documents have been sorted out, some stacked up to one person tall.
The ancient books are classified and placed after the initial arrangement.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
How "amazing" are these ancient Tibetan books?
Although the excavation and sorting process is very hard, everyone is "excited".
The reason is that the ancient books unearthed in Baiga Temple are rare regardless of their age, edition, and richness of content.
Cailuo introduced that the age of the ancient books unearthed in Baiga Temple was from the 12th century to the beginning of the 20th century.
Among them, there are more than 20 types of engraved documents, and the format and frame sizes range from the large-leaf Prajna Sutra to the palm-sized small-leaf version of the Diamond Sutra, as well as many documents on the long leaf of the arrow shaft that are standard in Tibetan ancient books.
There are more than 50 kinds of ancient books in this category, ranging from the generally larger long-leaf Prajna indigo manuscript to the smallest one with a size of less than ten centimeters.
The staff is sorting out ancient books.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
From the content point of view, these ancient books contain a large number of historical records, biographies, medical calendar calculations, ingenuity, Sanskrit poetry, etc., covering the classic works of Tibetan Buddhism and various sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Bon documents and "Ge The Biography of King Thrall.
In the Baiga Temple ancient book appraisal report, experts stated that "the richness of Baiga Temple ancient books is sufficient to build a Tibetan ancient book museum."
In addition, a large number of handwritten annotations have been found in these ancient books, which is especially precious to the researchers of ancient books.
Cai Luo explained: “There is currently no authoritative explanation for the terms in some documents in academia, but the annotations appearing in ancient books reveal the answers directly like dictionaries.”
The ancient books of Baiga Temple will be digitized in the future
The preliminarily sorted and classified ancient books of 366 letters were wrapped in brand new sutra cloth and letter head labels after registration, measurement and photographing, and were temporarily put into iron boxes and locked.
The remaining 13 bags of seriously damaged ancient books were repaired by the Tibet Autonomous Region Ancient Books Protection Center.
At the end of the first phase of the “rescue” work, the experts formulated a continuous protection plan.
In 2016, experts from the Tibet Autonomous Region Ancient Books Conservation Center went to Baiga Temple again, collected 237 image data of various loose leaf collections, and carried out a second sorting and classification.
The restoration of damaged ancient books has also continued. Up to now, 3390 leaves have been completed, and the restoration rate has reached 45%.
The Baiga Temple, which was dilapidated in the past, has now been renovated, and anti-theft facilities have been specially installed for these ancient books, and the preservation conditions have been greatly improved.
The ancient book restorer is repairing the ancient books of Baiga Temple.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
"Everyone has only one goal, that is, to use the ancient books under the premise of good protection." Cai Luo introduced that the experts will then compile and publish the catalogue and catalogues of ancient books in Shannan City, including the ancient books of Baiga Temple.
In the future, if special funds are obtained, complete digitization work will be carried out.
"Relevant results are expected to be rolled out in three years, but the protection of ancient books unearthed in Baiga Temple will continue, and academic research on these ancient books and documents will continue for a longer time." Cai Luo said.
Census of ancient books for more than ten years
Tibetan "Book Guardian" Thousands of Mountains Walking in the Snow
The Tibet Autonomous Region has a rich collection of ancient books. The Tibetan ancient books handed down have a long history and a large number of volumes. There are more than 1,000 collection units covering 74 counties.
Ancient books are mostly stored in monasteries, and their locations are often far away from the city, in remote areas and inconvenient transportation.
For a long time, the "book guards" of the Tibet Autonomous Region's Ancient Books Protection Center have overcome the difficulties of lack of professionals and scattered stock of ancient books, and have served as an "home" for ancient books and allowed them to "rebirth".
In 2013, the staff conducted a census of ancient books in Xigazeru Village.
The road was destroyed by a flash flood, and everyone walked on the rocks in the mountains.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"Where there is a car, we drive by ourselves, ride a horse without a car, and even hike without a horse." Cai Luo introduced that when conducting a census of ancient books, everyone should bring cameras and other equipment, and often have to prepare dry food. Prepare tents and sleeping bags for outdoor camping.
In 2014, when I went to Ru County, Nagqu City for a survey of ancient books, Cai Luo and his colleagues went there on foot because the local area was not open to traffic.
The temple hangs on the mountainside, and underneath is the roaring Nu River Canyon. Every step is frightened.
Everyone walked for 8 hours to reach the destination. After taking pictures and registering the ancient books, they hurried back immediately.
In 2014, the staff went to Nagquru County for a census of ancient books and passed a simple floating bridge on the Nu River.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Cailuo said that during the census of ancient books, it is common to encounter mudslides and floods that destroy roads.
But for more than ten years, there has never been a traffic accident, no accident happened, "this is our luck."