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Chang Jiahuang started opening modern caves not far from theMogao Grottoes, in accordance with his father Chang Shuhong'swill. Photos Provided to China Daily |
In ancient times when creating murals on the walls in the Mogao Grottoes inDunhuang, Gansu province, artists depicted not only stories and images fromBuddhist classics, but also of the caves' financial backers, the likes of which canbe seen on the passage walls of caves 9, 61, 130 and 196.
Fifty-nine kilometers from the Mogao Grottoes and 3 kilometers from the WesternThousand-Buddha Cave, those living today are given the chance to have theirlikeness portrayed on the walls of Dunhuang Modern Grottoes.
Two years after Chang Shuhong, founder of Dunhuang Academy, died in 1994, his wifeLi Chengxian and his son Chang Jiahuang started opening modern caves not far fromthe Mogao Grottoes, in accordance with the father's will. In doing so they usedmoney they had saved and collected over the years.
Chang Jiahuang even sold some of his paintings to invest in the caves. His motherdied of cancer in 2003 and left a tidy sum of money to him to open more caves.
For two decades Chang has poured millions of yuan into the caves, in the face of agreat deal of skepticism from many people who question his motives. He quit hishighly paid job in Japan and his wife divorced him, taking their two children withher.
"There have been many difficulties with the project, and they certainly haven'tjust been financial," Chang says.
He has been in Japan recently, and this week signed a two-year contract with anorganization called Japan-China Cultural Exchange Promotion which entails bothparties working on developing Cave 5 of Dunhuang Modern Grottoes. As usual, Changsays, he will foot the cost of design and construction.
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[Photo Provided to China Daily] |
Restoration
His elder sister and his son's objections to the work have dented his morale, hesays.
Chang Shana, his sister is a former president of the Central Academy of Art andDesign in Beijing. In a previous interview, she said she disagreed with the idea.She once visited the modern caves and found they were built on a "precipitous cliffwhose natural conditions are unsuitable for caves". In addition, "the contents ofthe modern caves murals are incoherent", she says.
The cliff is 30 meters above Danghe River. Each year, water drawn from thereservoir slams against the foot of the cliff.
Three kilometers away, the river flow constantly shakes the Western Thousand-BuddhaCave. There are said to have originally been more than 2,000 caves, but thevibration has, over time, reduced them to less than 20.
In July 2008 a part of the modern caves collapsed, and a mural in Cave 1, paintedby Chang Jiahuang's mother Li Chengxian, was stolen as the result of a passage thatthe collapse opened up.
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[Photo Provided to China Daily] |
"Police in Dunhuang helped retrieve the painting after 17 days' investigation,"Chang says.
He chose the location because almost all the good spots are included in the MogaoGrottoes protection area, an idea his parents came up with.
In a transcription of a conversation between Chang and his son that the fatherprovided, the son said he had never thought it was his father who paid for theproject, rather than the project paying him.
Chang Jiahuang has opened 20 caves over the years, and several years ago mediaquoted him as saying that if the project made no progress he would abandon it andseal the caves with two trucks of concrete.
The plan for Cave 1 is for it to hold facsimiles of precious works from the MogaoGrottoes that were looted and taken overseas. In Cave 2 the aim is to restorefacsimiles of the best works from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) to their originalcolors.
"Artists from all over the world are welcome to create works in two themes:environmental protection and peace," he says.
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[Photo Provided to China Daily] |
Dunhuang gene
Chang, born in a Tibetan temple in Dunhuang, says a kind of Dunhuang gene runs inhis blood. Against all odds, he sticks to his will, he says, which reminds him ofhis father Chang Shuhong.
His father once said that he preferred colorful Western paintings to Chinesetraditional paintings represented by ink and wash. But when he saw an album ofpaintings compiled by Paul Pelliot, who visited the Mogao Grottoes early lastcentury and took many precious sutra back to France, he was shocked by the beautyof this art from his hometown.
On returning to China and going to Dunhuang he was shocked to find that instead ofcolorful works much of what he saw was in ruins. He decided to stay to do his bitto protect the cultural relics.
"My father did that for the rest of his life," Chang Jiahuang says.
In building caves, he says, he is carrying out his father's wish to employ thisancient method to preserve today's culture and art for people 1,000 years hence.
