Preserving A Fragile Cultural Heritage Destination: Decoding and Encoding the MoGao Caves

The cultural heritage tourism industry has been on a constant expansion in China across the past decades. A growing volume of regional municipalities and investors is actively participating in developing and transforming the cultural heritage sites into tourism destinations. While the mass tourism and its continuous escalation are bringing tremendous success to regional economy, it is also significantly challenging the material integrity of fragile cultural heritage destinations. Such an issue is exposed most acutely at the Mogao Caves, an archaeological cave-temple ensemble in northwestern China. This thesis lays out the cultural heritage preservation framework and the growing tourism economy in China, dissects the preservation issues and challenges presence at the Mogao Caves, evaluates current Mogao Caves visitation design and narratives, seeks guidance and possible resolutions via international case studies faced with similar challenges, and eventually proposes a vision and plan of redevelopment that aims at encounter-balancing the diverse challenges by integrating findings discovered in the research process

A history and development of conservation and restoration in Europe and in China

The history and development of cultural heritage conservation is a choice of the main body in charge or power. Based on the complex conditions of historical and cultural backgrounds, economic development levels, political systems, and development conditions of cultural heritage, different modalities are formed and adopted by different countries or regions. Being originated from the philosophies and activities of cultural heritage hundreds of years ago, the European countries faced these subjects in many ways, and right now have taken positive actions to manage and restrict each behavior about and around the cultural heritage. Among these countries, Italy is a long-time practitioner, a strong enforcer, and a major proponent of some new regulations and acts of conservation, but also the restoration of cultural heritage. Furthermore, it helps China to complete some cooperation activities of the conservation and restoration projects. Being absorbed some valuable experiences from Europe and learned the most useful lessons from Italy, the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage in China have been not too late at all, but have been developed to establish its own way to regulate and promote certain behind behaviors. As the terms from “antiquities” and “cultural relics”, then to “cultural prosperity” and “cultural heritage”, the fundamental conditions and a comprehensive system of the conservation and restoration in China have been described as well. With the development of the conservation theory, the Teoria del Restauro (Theory of Restoration) of Cesare Brandi gained great attention and has been translated in Chinese two times. While maintaining the aesthetic side of a work of art, this book is the first pioneer to pay attention to the authenticity and integrity of the historical and material level of conservation objects

Buddhism in Central Asia I

Buddhism in Central Asia (Part I): Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage, 6-14th Centuries deals with the various strategies of legitimation and the establishment of sacred space and pilgrimage among both trans-regional (Chinese, Indian, Tibetan) and local (Khotanese, Uyghur, Tangut, Kitan) Buddhist traditions. Readership: All interested in dynamics of inter-cultural encounter and Buddhist transfer in pre-modern Eastern Central Asia