Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 / Page 708 (Color Image)

0708	Ruins of Desert Cathay : 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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