Forever Young Mogao Grottoes

The Mogao Grottoesare located at thefoot of the MingshaMountain in thesoutheast of Dunhuang City，northwestern China’s GansuProvince. Construction ofthe grottoes spanned over1，000 years from 366 A.D.to the Yuan Dynasty （1271-1368）. There are now 735well-preserved grottoesboasting 45，000 square metersof murals and over 2，400colored sculptures. They are adazzling art trove of ancientChinese civilization， and animportant witness to dialogueand exchange between differentcivilizations that once tookplace on the ancient Silk Road.

As time passes， theprecious cultural relics of theMogao Grottoes inevitablyface threats from climatechange. Since the late 1980s，the Dunhuang Academy hasbeen exploring digital meansto preserve cultural relics.After more than 30 years ofendeavors， the academy hasdeveloped a set of workingprocesses and key technologiesfor the preservation ofimmovable cultural relics. Asof May 2024， the DunhuangAcademy’s cultural relics digitalconservation team， composedof 110 professionals， hadcompleted a digital collectionof murals in 295 caves andimage stitching for 186 caves.They also accomplished 3Dreconstruction of seven majorsites and 45 colored sculpturesas well as 3D laser scanningof the spatial structures of 212caves.

Xiong Yeteng， born in1995， came from Xi’an inShaanxi Province to the MogaoGrottoes to start a journeyof cave image collection.Since each cave of the MogaoGrottoes has distinctivefeatures， his shooting planhas to be tailored to everyindividual cave. “Photos ofthe Mogao Grottoes takenover 100 years ago and morerecent images are drasticallydifferent，” Xiong said. “Theneed to document and preservethese caves is urgent.”

He Wenjiang， also amillennial， had to navigateuneven murals， narrow cracks，and high slanted surfaces.He likened every press ofthe shutter to conducting anexperiment. The caves werecold and damp， so he and hiscolleagues wore down jacketsand knee pads while working.Often， a full day of effortswould only yield a dozen clearphotos.

Nian Haili is a master atpiecing puzzles together. Shespent over a decade stitchingtogether collected images.Years of experience made hereyes particularly sharp， helpingher successfully create a digitalversion of the Mogao Grottoes.

Han Xue， in her 30s，has been dedicated to theinnovative application of digitalresources for over a decade.She continues to pursue newtechnologies and ideas in thisregard.

As a member of thecreative marketing team， LiaoXueting has transformedDunhuang art into culturaland creative products thatcombine practicality withaesthetics. Wang Jiaqi createdJiayao， a virtual cartoonfigure representing the MogaoGrottoes， with an aim to spreadDunhuang culture and storiesfurther through new media.

Empowered by digitaltechnology， cultural relicssuch as murals and coloredsculptures have been preservedin a digital form for thelong term. However， digitalpreservation efforts do notstop there. Currently， the teamis actively promoting digitaldissemination of Dunhuangculture and bringing Dunhuangart into people’s everyday life.

The “Digital Dunhuang”resource library and its Englishversion were launched in 2016and 2017， respectively. TheDunhuang Academy shareshigh-definition digital imagesand panoramic tours of 30caves in Dunhuang， free ofcharge. In September 2023，the academy launched its firstin-depth cultural knowledgeinteractive project， “ExploringDunhuang — An ImmersiveDigital Exhibition.” Utilizingcutting-edge technologies suchas 3D modeling， game enginephysically based rendering，and virtual reality （VR）， theproject recreated Cave 285 ofthe Mogao Grottoes with highprecision at 1：1 scale. Visitorscan put on VR equipmentand “walk into” the grottoto explore every corner andinteract with characters in themurals.

In terms of internationalcooperation on culturalheritage conservation， in2023， the team undertook atechnical cooperation projecton mural protection for theThatbyinnyu Pagoda in Bagan，Myanmar. The technologicalachievements of “DigitalDunhuang” have spreadbeyond China’s borders，contributing Chinese solutionsand expertise to scientificpreservation of cultural relicsall along the Silk Road.

Today， the priority of thedigital preservation teamremains the Mogao Grottoesand other grottoes underthe administration of theDunhuang Academy. DingXiaohong， deputy directorof the Cultural RelicsDigitalization ResearchInstitute of the DunhuangAcademy， said that the teamwill continue to expandthe transformation andutilization of digital heritageachievements and make betteruse of the more than 300TBof digital resources to bringpeople closer to history.