Free Dunhuang discovery card

Read a painted journey, a printed scroll and the different times of a collection.

Illustrated opening and Chinese text columns from the Diamond Sutra printed in 868 — Diamond Sutra frontispiece and text opening, British Library Or.8210/P.2. The colophon and complete scroll are not shown. British Library digital image; historical print artist unidentified · Print: 11 May 868; digitisation date unspecified · CC0. Existing source extent retained; proportional resize and WebP conversion, no added crop or object alteration. Image record ↗

1. Wall: follow a path in the Wutai detail. Record the cave number, wall direction and represented place separately. Which feature invites a journey, and which part comes from the source description rather than your observation?

2. Paper: distinguish illustration and text at the scroll’s opening. What can you actually see, and where would you look for the colophon? Write the object identifier with your note.

3. Three times: make separate lines for production, deposit or closure, and reopening. Give a source for each date or date range. Mark any proposed explanation as interpretation.

4. Care: using the Cave 85 case study, connect support, plaster and paint. Formulate one research question before intervention. Explain why this example does not establish the present condition of the Cave 61 mural.

Original free English worksheet. Not a translation or release of a paid Turkish PDF. Notes are not saved automatically; print or save as PDF before closing.

Numbered sources ↗ · Return to the story ↗