The rich cultural resources at the Dunhuang grottoes, improvement in local transportation conditions, and an increase in Chinese tourism have attracted a growing number of visitors from around the world, increasing the fame of this cultural site. People have become more and more interested in Dunhuang, which has led to a greater appreciation of the grotto sites and promotion of the efforts to conserve them. As additional caves open to the public each year, however, the appearance and environmental conditions of the grottoes have begun to change significantly. The increase in visitors has led to increases in traffic, garbage, discharge of waste water
And sewage, and residual waste from vehicles and boilers. It has also raised the temperature, humidity, and the amount of carbon dioxide inside the caves and has affected the stability of their microenvironments. Some visitors have damaged the site intentionally or carelessly, and some have even stolen relics. All of these factors are contributing to the deterioration of the site and threatening the preservation of the cultural relics.
Our responsibility, as conservation professionals, is to utilize scientific management principles, methods, and systems to ensure the protection of the cultural relics, to solve the conflict between protection and use, and to do a good job of preserving cultural heritage. For such an important site as Mogao, the guiding principle in opening the site to visitors has been to stress protection as the main objective while encouraging its active use. Management standards here ensure the safety of the cultural sites, maintain their original appearance, and permit scientific studies of them. Based on these principles, site-management work has been carried out in the following areas:
Meeting public demand. Many visitors travel long distances and look forward to seeing the art treasures at Dunhuang. The desires of these visitors must be respected. When visitors are pleased with their experience, they will help to promote the protection of the site. To explain the art and history of the caves to international visitors with different specialties, different levels of experience, and different languages, tour guides have been professionally trained and provided with a range of foreign language skills (English, Japanese, French, Russian, German, etc.). Most of them were trained in domestic foreign-language schools, and some were sent to Japan for language training. More than forty tour guides have mastered specific languages and can provide specialized explanations. Various pamphlets are provided; and special volumes of art books, pictures, slides, and souvenirs are also available.
Visitor management. To avoid damage or destruction of the cultural relics resulting from lack of knowledge about conservation on the part of visitors, the grottoes are opened by area and each cave by turn, limiting the number of caves open at any one time and restricting the number of people allowed to enter each cave per visit. The entrance charge has also been increased to reduce the number of visitors, and restriction signs (such as no smoking and no photography) have been posted, as required by national law Visitation regulations and policies have also been updated.
Scientific preventive measures. As part of this plan, a collaboration was formed between the Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation Institute. The conservation team set up automated or semiautomated monitoring stations to monitor temperature, humidity, wall temperature, and carbon dioxide levels in order to understand the effects of visitors on the microenvironment of the caves. A particle-velocity monitoring system was applied to measure vibrations in the grotto caused by tourists, motor vehicles, and airplanes at an airport located 15 km from the site. The team also established several indices of atmospheric quality in the grotto area to monitor the level of pollution.
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