Superb millennium manuscripts to be displayed in Chongqing

Chongqing (CNS) -- As of February 25, the national treasure known as the Dunhuang manuscripts will be on guarded display at the Baolin Museum in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

The Dunhuang manuscripts were first excavated in 1900 by a Taoist priest in a cave of the Mogao Grottoes used to preserve Buddhist sutras. Unfortunately about two-thirds of the scripts were smuggled overseas during the chaos caused by western powers just years after.

The remaining one-third are kept in a puce sandalwood box. Museum staff only remove the cover after testing the indoor temperature and humidity, and putting on white gloves.

Zhang Qizheng, an official at the provincial cultural relic authority in Sichuan, has visited the site where the 1,200-year-old manuscripts were sealed for nearly a millennium, and sighed with relief at the superb condition of the relics; they look just like new.