国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 | |
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.1 |
46o
ANCIENT TEMPLES OF MIRAN CH. XL
yellow, etc., evidently once belonging to streamers, and
fragments of wood-carving in Gandhara style, which had
perhaps once adorned the ` Tee ' or decorative umbrella
above the Stupa, I recovered curious relics of what may
have been votive offerings of the last worshippers at
the shrine. They consisted of a mass of artificial flowers,
cleverly cut out of stiff woollen fabrics, coloured cream,
blue, saffron, purple, etc., and provided with small stems
of wood supporting a clever imitation of stamina. Two
large pieces of a stout material resembling buckram, and
showing a diagram of black and white painted on a surface
layer of wax or plaster, turned up with some of the flowers
still stuck on to them ; of others there remained the
punched holes. Evidently these painted fabrics had
served to hang up offerings of artificial flowers.
I felt warmed inwardly with elation as I sat in my
bitterly cold tent till a late hour that evening, trying to
record in orderly fashion the facts and impressions of the
day's work, and to find the true perspective and import of
the vista which this unpretentious ruin had begun to reveal
of classical pictorial art strangely transplanted to Lop-nor.
It meant an illuminating discovery, but also the source of
new problems. I should have to face practical difficulties,
too, and these almost at once. For the fine wall-paintings
now about to rise from their grave there was no other
chance of thorough study and protection but removal.
But I knew well, it would be a very difficult task to effect
this and the distant transport in safety. The backing of the
fresco panels was nothing but a layer of friable plaster,
i.e. dried mud, which in many places showed ominous
cracks even where still adhering to the wall. The method
and means of detaching them, as well as of packing them,
had still to be improvised, not to mention the making
of cases sufficiently large and strong out of such materials
as the jungle of the Miran stream could supply.
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