Wang Yuan-lu

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Image:Abbotwang.jpg

Wang Yuan-lu was a Taoist priest acting as Abbot of the caves in Dunhuang at the beginning of the 20th Century. He discovered ancient Buddhist scriptures in a temple there, and, failing to appreciate their cultural value, sold them to various visitors from Europe. The first was Sir Aurel Stein, who took a largely random selection of the works. One source states that "To gain access to the caves, Stein had to hoodwink their slightly mad, self-appointed guardian Wang Yuan-lu, a subterfuge for which the Chinese haven't forgiven him."Template:Ref Later Paul Pelliot would come to purchase the most valuable among them.

Reference

• Hopkirk, Peter (1980). Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 0-87023-435-8.

External links

• The Oldest Printed Text in the World - The Diamond Sutra
• The David Middleton Reed Collection of Chinese Studies
• Template:Note Dick Heimovics, (1999). Connecting and Disconnections on the Silk Road.

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