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Li Xiaojie, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, presented a gold ornament to Liu Weiping, Gansu provincial governor, at a hand-over ceremony on Monday morning, marking the relics' return.
It was the first time cultural relics have been successfully returned to China following bilateral negotiations between the Chinese and French governments. They were returned by French private collectors Francois Pinault and Christian Deydier earlier this year.
The 32 gold items came from tombs in Dabuzishan in Lixian County, Gansu Province dating back to the Spring and Autumn period (770 BC-476 BC). The tombs were badly looted during the 1990s and a large number of relics, including the gold ornaments, were smuggled abroad.
A public exhibition of the relics also opened on Monday and will last until Oct. 31. After that, they will be permanently displayed at the Gansu Provincial Museum.
Source: Xinhua [July 20, 2015]
A visit to Thotlakonda on Wednesday revealed that not much has changed during the last decade. The base of the main stupa has been damaged and heaps of damaged ancient bricks and material were seen lying at some places.
The centuries-old rock ‘thotlu’ (cisterns) with steps leading into them, for drawing of rain water, are still serving their purpose of collection of rain water. Tourists arriving by the AP Tourism buses are greeted by the monumental ruins and the sign boards and other amenities damaged by cyclone Hudhud in October last year.
One cannot, however, ignore the laying of roads, landscaping and provision of some basic amenities at Thotlakonda and Bavikonda by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) over a decade ago and works taken up in subsequent years.
The monuments can be protected only when scientific restoration is done to protect the stupas, chaityagrihas and relics discovered at the heritage sites. A proper coordination between the Archaeology and Tourism Departments and VUDA is needed for this purpose.
“The rich cultural heritage of Bhavikonda, Thotlakonda and Pavuralakonda, dating back to the 3rd century BC and the ashes of the Buddha, found in a Mahasthupa at Bavikonda, need to be protected. We cannot afford to lose them. Protecting them will also help tourism development in a big way,” says CII Vizag Chapter former chairman G. Sambasiva Rao.
“Thai tourists are willing to come here but there is no information on the Buddhist heritage sites available on the east coast, the Deputy Consul General (Commercial), Royal Thai (Chennai), Tharadol Thongruang”, said at a recent meeting organised by the CII in the city.
“Estimates have been sent for development of tourist information centres and public amenities at the Buddhist heritage sites at Thotlakonda and Bhavikonda in the city at an estimated cost of Rs.80 lakh and Rs.76 lakh respectively. Tenders will be called once the approval of the government was received,” Tourism General Manager G. Bheemasankara Rao told The Hindu recently.
Author: B. Madhu Gopal | Source: The Hindu [July 18, 2015]
Flanked by River Haro on the one side and Margalla Hills on the other, Taxila is a vast serial site that includes a Mesolithic cave and the archaeological remains of four early colony sites. “It is one of the most important archaeological sites in Asia,” according to UNESCO.
With so much to show the world, Taxila is ignored on the tourist map largely because of the country’s security situation, lack of tourism promotion, and privation of facilities in the city.
From the famous Grand Trunk (GT) Road, a small and poorly metalled road leads to Taxila Museum and the archaeological sites. The picturesque lush green natural landscape has changed dramatically over the last 25 years.
Unplanned houses, hand carts, shops and vendors’ stalls are the modern hallmarks of the area, instead of its previous relaxing and enjoyable natural beauty. The rapid urbanisation of the area and the plunder of the sites has cost the sites dearly and yet nobody pays attention to it.
The results are obvious. The Global Heritage Fund has identified Taxila as one of 12 sites worldwide that are “On the Verge” of irreparable loss and damage. The fund’s 2010 report attributes this irreparable loss to insufficient management, development pressure, looting, and war and conflict as primary threats.
Moving along the dusty and crowded Grand Trunk (GT) Road from Islamabad to Taxila, the monument of Brigadier general John Nicholson, a famous military figure of the British Empire, greets a visitor. The monument is located on the Margalla Hills — the gateway to Taxila.
The sighting of Nicholson’s monument takes the visitor instantaneously to the days of British Colonial Raj. The time when teams of archaeologists were digging around the town of Taxila in search of the lost civilisations. The finding has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“It’s the marvel Pakistan got from the British Colonial Raj and yet it has not properly promoted as a tourist destination,” said Javed Iqbal, an archaeologist. Taxila is one of the three top Pakistani archaeology sites including the ruins of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro — two of the main cities that comprise the Indus Valley Civilisation, he said.
Sir John Marshall, the director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928, began the excavations at Taxila that continued for the next twenty years. In 1918, Marshall laid the foundation stone of the Taxila Museum to preserve the precious findings.
The museum is built in the middle of the archaeological site and has a rich collection of relics, artefacts, stupas, and stone and stucco sculptures from different Buddhist monasteries, Gandhara Art and the Kushana period. The Kingdom of Gandhara lasted from the Vedic period (1500-500 BC) as a centre of Graeco-Buddhism, Bactrian Zoroastrianism and Animism.
Ahmad Alamgir, another archaeologist and historian, who met me at the museum said that only one significant development had been carried out by the government of Pakistan in almost a century.
“Sir Marshall actually could not complete the original plan of the museum when he had to leave for England. After the creation of Pakistan, the government of Pakistan constructed the northern gallery of the museum in 1998 … and that’s it,” he said.
The museum has a number of galleries in which findings from the surrounding sites have been presented subject wise. There are lines of wall and table showcases in the galleries and a complete stupa, from the Buddhist monastery of Mohra Moradu, stands in the middle of the main hall of the museum.
A vast collection of stucco heads of Buddha showing different faces and styles is the main attraction for tourists. The big Buddha heads are typically Gandharan in style, according to the archaeologists.
City of Cut Stone
The historic town of Taxila, originally Takaśilā in Sanskrit (meaning City of Cut Stone) is located around 35km from Islamabad just off the famous Grand Trunk Road. The city is still famous of its artisans, who keep their ancestors’ profession alive, by making stone sculptures, murals and panels.
They also produce flower pots, planters, fountains, garden ornaments, balusters, pillars and railings, and fire places. Taxila, according to historians, thrived from 518BC to 600AD. In 326BC Alexander the Great and his armies encountered charging elephants in battle against Hindu king Porus.
Before fighting the battle, Alexander marched through the city and was greeted by King Ambhi. In 300BC Taxila was conquered by the Mauryan Empire under Chandragupta Maurya that disintegrated the Bactrian Greeks, the successors of Alexander, in 190BC. Ashoka, the legendary king of India, ruled Taxila as governor under his father Bindusara’s rule. The city, which is a part of Rawalpindi district, is now a main industrial town of Pakistan with heavy machine factories and industrial complex, stoneware and pottery.
Author: Aftab Kazmi | Source: Gulf News [July 18, 2015]
Both the gateways are located on GT Road, close to ASI-protected Tripolia gateways. Nobody was hurt when the structure collapsed on Sunday. One could only see rubble, debris and remains of the monument on Monday, with only some portions left standing. "It's fortunate no one was hurt when the building came tumbling down. We have never seen the authorities showing any interest to preserve this building, even though it dates back to 1710,'' said Vinod Bansal, who owns a shop adjacent to the collapsed gateway.
It is not clear which agency has jurisdiction over the monument. But encroachment is rampant in the area with many heritage structures being damaged by vandals and squatters. "I have been living here for many years. I used to pay rent for running my shop in the building to its owner. We knew the building was going to collapse as we saw small pieces of debris falling and noticed an unusual tilt to the monument early on Sunday. My shop has been closed as the whole building is declared dangerous now,'' said Niranjan Sharma, who had a telecommunications shop right next to the gateway entrance.
According to Intach Heritage listing, the double-height gateway was originally faced with red sandstone. The upper floor was taken over as a residence years ago, which is the only portion still standing.
The surviving gateway to the garden of Maldhar Khan, meanwhile, is also falling to pieces.
Sources said both the gateways were surveyed and identified by the department of archaeology for conservation and protection under the Delhi Archaeology Act. While it is unclear whether the department had identified both gateways for protection or just one,
Experts said the delay in implementing conservation measures had caused more damage to them. Officials from the department of archaeology did not respond to calls made by TOI.
Both structures also figure in the municipal corporation's list of notified heritage buildings. North Corporation commissioner P K Gupta said: "We'll have to look into the reasons of the collapse and determine the building's ownership. Action will be taken accordingly.'' The Maharana Pratap Bagh RWA has also written to the Delhi government over the collapse, accusing them of negligence.
"This historic building was heavily encroached upon. The department of archaeology failed to take action, which led to this,'' said Saurabh Gandhi, RWA president. On Monday, a team from ASI visited the site to assess whether the collapse had any effect on the Tripolia gateways.
While much is not known about the history of the gateways, experts say there were older than the ASI-protected Tripolia gateways. While Tripolia was built in 1728, these two gateways were built in 1710. History has it that they were built by Maldhar Khan, Nazir during the reign of Mohammed Shah Rangila. The two gateways used to lead to a beautiful garden also built by Khan. The garden vanished many years ago, and only can only see a clutter of shops and crowded houses there now. Not much is known about Maldhar Khan but it is assumed he was an influential noble and gifted architect.
Author: Richi Verma | Source: Times of India [July 07, 2015]
The dealer, Subhash Kapoor, is now awaiting trial in India for allegedly looting artifacts worth tens of millions of dollars.
Mr. Kapoor operated a now-defunct gallery on the Upper East Side called Art of the Past. Prosecutors allege that between 1995 and 2012 he illegally imported and sold stolen antiquities from India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, often using forged documents to pass the items off as legitimate.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit and the Manhattan district attorney’s office have together recovered more than 2,500 artifacts worth more than $100 million from the gallery and storage facilities in and around New York City.
Kenneth J. Kaplan, a lawyer in New York representing Mr. Kapoor, declined to comment Wednesday, but said his client had asserted his innocence both to him and to his counsel in India. Mr. Kapoor has not yet entered a plea in India, according to a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
The item recovered this week is a Chola-period bronze representing a Tamil poet and saint that dates to the 11th or 12th centuries, according to Brenton Easter, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations. The statue, which stands nearly two feet tall and weighs more than 80 pounds, was allegedly looted about a decade ago from a temple in a village in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The theft of the figure was “completely devastating” to the villagers, Mr. Easter said on Wednesday afternoon, as he stood by the open door of the van containing the relic parked on East 91st Street near Park Avenue. The item was smuggled into the U.S. labeled as a handicraft, and then offered for sale at Mr. Kapoor’s gallery on Madison Avenue.
In recent months some institutions that purchased objects from Mr. Kapoor have surrendered the items to Homeland Security Investigations. They include the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.
In a statement, Honolulu Museum Director Stephan Jost said in April that “clearly the museum could have done better” with its past vetting of objects. Dan L. Monroe, the Peabody Essex Museum director, said in a statement that month that the institution has undertaken “a rigorous internal assessment of its collection and is working in full cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security.”
This time around, the stolen object was voluntarily surrendered by an anonymous collector who had been contacted by investigators about the piece. Officials said the buyer was considered a victim because the statue was accompanied by a false provenance, or ownership history, that predated its theft.
“We commend this collector for his conscious decision to return this stolen idol,” said Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., special agent in charge of HSI New York. “We hope that other collectors, institutions and museums will continue to partner with HSI, and to see this surrender as a successful way to move forward when dealing with artifacts that might be of concern.”
The agency has recovered at least six other sacred Chola bronzes that it anticipates repatriating to the Indian government.
In April, the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed papers in New York State Supreme Court seeking the forfeiture of 2,622 items seized from the gallery and storage units in Manhattan, Queens and Long Island. The items were worth $107 million, according to the summons. Among them: a statue from India valued at $15 million, a large bronze statue from Cambodia or Thailand worth $5 million and a large standing Buddha from North India estimated at $7.5 million.
According to the April summons, Mr. Kapoor and his gallery manager, Aaron Freedman, “engaged in a common plan and scheme to illegally obtain and sell stolen items of art and conceal or disguise the nature, source and ownership of the illegally obtained property.”
Mr. Freedman pleaded guilty in December 2013 to five counts of criminal possession of stolen property and one count of conspiracy, according to the summons. Prosecutors said the antiquities were forfeitable from Mr. Kapoor and his gallery as proceeds and/or instrumentalities of crime.
Author: Jennifer Smith | Source: The Wall Street Journal [July 03, 2015]
According to research by the China Great Wall Society, it is not optimistic about the protection of the Great Wall. For example, only 8.2 percent of the Great Wall built in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) is in good condition presently.
Moreover, in the report released by the Chinese State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2012, less than 10 percent of the Ming Great Wall is preserved adequately, 20 percent is moderately preserved, and almost 30 percent has disappeared.
The World Monument Fund based in New York announced in 2003 that the Great Wall was among the 100 most endangered historic sites.
Bad weather is one of the main causes of damage to the Great Wall. Dong Yaohui, the deputy of the China Great Wall Society, said that most parts of the masonry structure of the Great Wall are in Beijing and Hebei province. Though they are more stable than the sun-dried mud brick Great Wall, in the rainy seasons during July and August, they can be easily broken by storms.
Local data shows that in the summer of 2012, 36 meters of the Dajing Gate part of the Great Wall in Zhangjiakou, a city in northwestern Hebei province, was damaged by storms; the Shanhai Pass part in Qinhuangdao, a city in northeast part of Hebei province, leaked badly; while some fighting towers of the Wulonggou portionin Laiyuan, a city in western Hebei province, totally collapsed.
Even in the dry seasons, because of lack of protection, the Great Wall in the mountain areas in Hebei province was eroded by mountain springs or even plants. In Funing County, a county in Qinhuangdao, if you slightly touch the wall of the watchtowers, you will find soil peeling off. There are also trees growing in the cracks of the Great Wall.
People living around or travelling to the Great Wall which has not been developed into tourist attractions are also damaging the wall. According to Zhang Heshan, a Great Wall protector in Funing County, more travelers have been exploring the wild Great Wall in recent years. The frequent trampling has led to damage, causing the bricks to loosen, and even walls to collapse. However, there were not enough protectors to patrol around these areas, and not enough money to restore the damage.
Journalists from the Beijing Times also found that people in some villages of Lulong County, in the west part of Qinhuangdao, lived in the houses built with ancient blue and grey bricks. They told the journalists that these bricks were removed from the Great Wall nearby.
Some villagers even sold the Great Wall bricks with carved characters. An unnamed villager in Dongfeng Village told the Beijing Times journalist that the market price of these bricks is 40 to 50 yuan ($6.4 to $8.05) a piece, or even as low as 30 yuan ($4.83). The villagers collect such bricks from the Great Wall without a second thought.
Accordign to Dong Yaohui, it is difficult for the government to fully protect the Great Wall. "In Funing County, there are only 9 people in the department of cultural relics, but they have to go on a 142.5 km tour of inspection. It’s definitely impossible to take good care of the Great Wall by themselves," Dong said.
Dong also stressed that the counties along the Great Wall are relatively poor. Most of the counties surrounding the Great Wall in Zhangjiakou are national assigned poverty counties. Local governments cannot afford to repair and protect the Great Wall, or only invest in the parts which bring in revenue from tourism.
To some people, developing tourism is an effective way to protect the Great Wall. Xu Guohua, the head of Banchangyu Great Wall Development Company, said that the destruction from the villagers has stopped after development. Meanwhile, tourists know which part of the Great Wall is endangered.
"You have to admit that the development of the wild Great Wall brings rules and regulations to both the villagers and travelers. In recent years, the protection of the Great Wall in our scenic spot became much better than the undeveloped parts in our county," said Xu.
However, many point out that it is impossible to develop the whole Great Wall into tourism sites. And the development may bring more visitors to the endangered Great Wall, but not all the tourism development companies are committed to protecting the Great Wall. Instead, some of them only focus on the income from tickets, regardless of the intrinsic value of the Great Wall.
How to protect the disappearing Great Wall? Obviously, it is an important test for Chinese society. Just like what Dong Yaohui said in an recent article, "the Great Wall belongs to everybody of China. The duty of protection of the Great Wall not only belongs to the government, but also to the common people. The most urgent goal for us is to arouse the enthusiasm of the public to protect the Great Wall. "
Source: China Daily [June 30, 2015]
The first phase of the project covers 18 sections of the "Great Wall of Qi" with a total length of 61 km. It will cost 208 million yuan (34 million U.S. dollars), according to Xie Zhixiu, head of the provincial cultural heritage administration.
Shandong will also launch projects this year to protect the natural environment and ancient military facilities along the Wall, said Xie.
Built between 770 BC and 476 BC in the ancient state of Qi, today's Shandong, the Great Wall of Qi started at a small village in what is now Changqing District of Jinan City, with passes, gates, castles and beacon towers along a total length of 641 km till it met the sea near Qingdao.
Due to natural erosion, construction, mining and land reclamation, the Great Wall of Qi is in a worsening condition.
As military defense projects, more than 20 emperors in ancient China ordered the building or renovation of walls and fortifications. The Great Wall of China was made a World Heritage Site in 1987.
Source: Xinhua [June 26, 2015]
The pyramid-shaped temple, which was discovered in 1815, has sunk 20 centimeters on the northeastern side over the past few decades. Furthermore, stones are coming apart in extended areas of the southwestern side and on the stairs leading to the temple’s main building.
BPCB restoration working group chief Sudarno said the extensive damage had put the whole structure of the temple in danger.
“The current damage is the accumulation of damage [from previous years] and it’s dangerous. That’s why we’ve had to prioritize the restoration of the temple this year,” Sudarno said.
The restoration work, he went on, had officially begun on June 18 and would last for two years. To carry out the major project, the BPCB is working with a joint team comprising Borobudur temple conservation experts, Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University (UGM) archaeologists and structural engineering experts and geologists from the National Development University (UPN), also in Yogyakarta.
During the restoration, local authorities will close the temple’s 5,440-square-meter compound to the public for security reasons.
Located in Sukuh village, around 35 kilometers east of Surakarta, Central Java, Sukuh temple is perched at around 910 meters above sea level on the western slopes of Mount Lawu.
Archaeologists believe the Javanese-Hindu temple was constructed in the 15th century, probably at the end of the Majapahit Empire era (between 1293 and 1500 CE), thought to be represented in a relief depicting a giant eating a human.
The restoration of Sukuh will, according to Sudarno, be followed by the dismantling of the temple’s main structure for research purposes. The center of the pyramid remained uncharted territory, he said.
The earliest book about the temple, Proveener Beschrijpten op Soekoh en Cetho, which was written by Dutch archaeologist Van der Vlis in the mid 19th century, reported that the temple’s center was covered in concrete.
“So far we can only predict what is inside the central part of the temple, soil or stone,” Sudarno said.
This year, he added, the restoration work would be focused on dismantling and research, while next year was for reassembling. The estimated Rp 941 million (US$70,500) cost of this year’s restoration work, according to Sudarno, is met by the state budget through the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Ministry.
The head of BPCB’s cultural heritage protection, development and utilization section, Gutomo, said many temples in the region were in need of restoration following a devastating 2006 earthquake that hit Yogyakarta and parts of Central Java. Priority, he went on, was given to temples categorized as part of the national cultural heritage and those in dangerously poor condition.
Other temples undergoing restoration work this year include Plaosan, Sewu, Bubrah and Lumbung, all of which are located in the same area as Prambanan temple.
“These four temples are part of the Prambanan temple national heritage,” Gutomo said.
Author: Kusumasari Ayuningtyas | Source: The Jakarta Post [June 29, 2015]
Lothal's cemetery is no longer accessible due to wild growth on the approach. The cemetery houses two skeletons found during excavations at the site, carried out between 1955 and 1962.
Lothal, which means `The City of Dead' in Gujarati, attracts legions of visitors, particularly students. A museum containing articles belonging to the Harappan era is another major draw. The excavation sites and museum are under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India ( ASI).
Officials said shortage of funds has lead to a staff crunch, affecting even routine maintenance. The museum gateman has to run to the historical Lothal dock to caution visitors against moving on the precarious structure. Boundary walls of wells are broken. The funds crunch prevents officials from carrying out further excavations.
Tushar Patel, a visitor on Sunday, said he asked the staff for information on the artefacts, but they hardly showed any interest in responding to his queries.
Author: Himanshu Kaushik | Source: The Times of India [June 22, 2015]
The two Buddhas of Bamiyan were constructed in the sixth century, at a time when the area was a site of pilgrimage and learning for Buddhists. Both Buddhas were carved out of sandstone cliffs and stood at well over 100 feet, and at one point painted and gilded. They managed to withstand the introduction of Islam to the region and the armies of Genghis Khan, but were unable to survive past the first year of the 21st century. The Taliban destroyed the Buddhas in March 2001.
“These idols have been gods of the infidels,” declared Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, in marking the statues for destruction. “First they fired at the Buddhas with tanks and artillery shells,” recalled one Afghan who participated in the attack. “But when that was ineffective, they planted explosives to try to destroy them.” When the Buddhas finally crumbled, Taliban fighters “were firing weapons into the air, they were dancing and they brought nine cows to slaughter as a sacrifice.” The monuments had endured for centuries, only to disappear in a matter of weeks.
Now a solution, albeit a temporary one, has arrived—and from an unlikely source. According to Ali Latifi, a Kabul-based journalist for the Los Angeles Times who witnessed the 3-D projections on Saturday and Sunday, the holograms, cast from projectors mounted on scaffolding, were the work of a Chinese couple who are currently traveling the world and filming a documentary. They had been deeply moved by the statues’ destruction in 2001, and, according to Latifi, decided to undertake the project and add Bamiyan to their itinerary. Latifi said that the couple fine-tuned the projections on a mountainside in China and then, after receiving approval from UNESCO and the Afghan government, brought the system to Afghanistan. The projections were not widely publicized, but over 150 people came to see the spectacle. Crowds remained well into the night, Latifi said, and some people played music while others looked on.
Author: Edward Delman | Source: The Atlantic [June 12, 2015]
But officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) say it is not just the rain that should be blamed. The granite pillars in the bazaar were in a dilapidated condition, with the foundation of the structures weakening over the years due to loosening of soil caused by water stagnation.
Several ‘saalu mantapas’ line either side of the road from the Virupaksha temple to the ‘Edhuru Basava’ which earlier served as space for business.
“The work of resurrecting these mantapas was proposed and the pillars were also numbered. The work was expected to begin shortly, but they collapsed before that. Steps will be taken to restore the mantapas to their original at the earliest,” ASI officials said.
It was only recently that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had raised concerns over irrigation and water-intensive agricultural practices in the area posing a threat to the heritage structures located in agricultural fields.
This is not the first time that the mantapas have faced threat. In December 2013, a couple of pillars at the same bazaar were damaged when a lorry loaded with material for putting up a pandal for the upcoming Hampi Utsav hit a couple of pillars. Earlier, construction of a bridge close to the Hampi monuments had invited the UNESCO’s wrath.
Author: M. Ahiraj | Source: The Hindu [June 18, 2015]
When TOI visited the four villages — Rasoolpur, Patsal, Madanpura and Bandroli — where this ancient art is located, it found that almost 70% of the paintings had been destroyed, and only the efforts of a few persevering villagers had enabled the remaining specimens to somehow escape destruction. Dal Chand Dhuliya, an elderly resident of Madanpura, spoke for many villagers when he said, "We know that once these paintings are destroyed, they can't be recovered. We keep an eye on them at present, but for how long will they survive, and how long can we keep protecting them?"
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) amazingly has not done much to protect these paintings. When probed on why the agency has not initiated any action on preserving this heritage, ASI superintending archaeologist Bhuvan Vikrama said, "We will try and save the remaining works of art and are working on a proposal. It will be sent to the headquarters for approval."
Over 70% of the cave paintings have disappeared due to illegal mining.
The remaining paintings, some still shining out in colours of maroon and ochre, show ancient men domesticating cattle as well as engaged in hunting. Some of them depict animals like elephant and bull. The best specimens, though, are at Patsal where there are two sites locally known as Sita ki Rasoi and Nai ki Gufa. Sita ki Rasoi is a natural cave situated at a height of 150 feet where ancient men probably lived. Inside it, there is a depiction of a character that looks like a bison. At Nai ki Gufa, deer and sambar can be seen in the paintings.
M K Pundhir, medieval archaeologist from the Centre of Advance Studies in History, Aligarh Muslim University, testifies to the antiquity of this art. "The paintings are definitely from the Mesolithic period as they depict animals of four legs with smaller size and linear decoration which is how they were portrayed at that time."
Meanwhile, an ASI official said that the caves were first discovered in 1967 in Rasoolpur at one site and later at adjoining places around 1976. When queried as to why they were not preserved by the archaeological body then, the official response was that it should have been done, but the agency's focus was more on the monuments of the area.
Author: Aditya Dev | Source: Times of India [June 08, 2015]
And with no solution in sight to brave the fast changing climatic conditions, the government now plans to brainstorm ways to protect the Buddhist heritage site in Tabo, a bowl-shaped valley in Lahaul and Spiti.
Built in 996 AD by a Buddhist king and his two sons, the Tabo monastery is among 36 protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). It has nine temples, four decorated stupas and cave shrines, besides a huge collection of manuscripts and 'Pramana' texts.
However, over the recent years, the monastery's mud structure and murals depicting the rich Buddhist culture have been under a threat. Increased rainfall and moisture level have already affected the miniature paintings drawn by masters of the time.
Moreover, repeated restoration by ASI has also caused damage to the mud structure, and the state languages, art and culture department has already raised the issue with it.
Now, the government says it will be deliberating with archeological experts and historians to find ways and act fast.
“We are holding a seminar at Tabo to find ways to protect the monument,” additional chief secretary of the languages, art and culture department, Upma Chaudhary, told HT.
The deliberations are being held jointly with the ASI.
The state department is also concerned about the fast increasing construction in an around the Tabo monastery, situated at a height of 3,050 m above sea level. Over the past few years, haphazard constructions had come up in an around the monastery, and the art and culture department wants the local administration to regulate building activity there.
Earlier, the state government had raised the issue of the monastery's bad condition during a conference of tourism ministers. Himachal had apprised the Union tourism minister that maintenance of the Tabo monastery was being carried out by ASI, but that it was still in a poor shape.
The state sought to inform the Centre that Tabo is emerging as a centre of Buddhist studies, besides being a famous hub of Buddhist tourism and as such the maintenance work at the monastery should not be sloppy.
Author: Gaurav Bisht | Source: Hindustan Times [June 06, 2015]
The Hanumandhoka Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Swayambhunath, Bouddhanath, Pashupatinath, and Changunarayan area are the major sites visited by the tourists. The number of tourists arriving in the country has suddenly decreased in the aftermath of the earthquakes that claimed over 9,000 lives on April 24.
However, the government has made it clear that only 15 per cent of the world heritage sites were damaged by the earthquakes. The bodies concerned, who visited the sites to check their condition have claimed that they are not completely damaged, an official said.
The heritage sites are certainly affected by the quake and aftershocks but they are not completely ravaged as reported by a section of media, said Director General of the Department of Archaeology, Bhesh Narayan Dahal. Various government and non-government teams, in coordination with the local people, have been working to remove the rubble of the structures.
Meanwhile, two aftershocks were felt in Nepal today. A 4.5 magnitude tremor was recorded at 1.37 pm (local time) with epicentre at Sindhupalchowk district. Another 4.1 magnitude tremor was recorded at 2.45 am (local time) with epicentre at Sindhupalchowk district, according to the National Seismological Centre.
Source: Press Trust of India [June 04, 2015]
The ICC-Angkor has convened regularly twice a year to consistently follow up on all operations being carried out on the site, the statement said, adding that it is the international mechanism for coordinating all assistance extended by different countries and organizations for preserving and developing the site.
The session will be opened by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister Sok An and UNESCO Representative in Cambodia Anne Lemaistre.
The two-day session "will be devoted to a number of presentations by specialists, featuring themes on restoration, archaeological research, tourism and sustainable development," the statement said.
The ICC-Angkor was established after the Angkor Archeological Park was inscribed in the UNESCO's World Heritage list on December 14, 1992.
The ancient site is the country's most popular tourist destination, which is located in Siem Reap province, some 315 km northwest of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
According to the latest government figures, the site attracted 842,719 foreign tourists in the first four months of this year, earning 24.1 million U.S. dollars from ticket sales.
Source: Xinhua [June 02, 2015]
The city is situated about half a kilometre north east of the district, on the banks of River Daur near Sera-e-Saleh. Once housed by the last of the Central Asian kings Azes I and II in Gandhara, the city today is a graveyard of yesteryear.
At a height of about 1,000 feet above the river, the settlement overlooks the entire Haripur landscape, whispering anecdotes of the past. Indo-Scythians were essentially Central Asian tribespeople who migrated to South Asia in 2 BC. They were called ‘Shaka’ in the vernacular, a morphed version of their Persian name Saka. They have been repeatedly mentioned in classical Hindu texts as a warrior nation. Their foothold in the region remained firm for several centuries.
Unearthed by accident
Legend has it the ancient city, proverbially called the ‘Castle of three sisters’ – Katiyan, Matiyan and Satiyan, was first discovered in 1993 when locals shovelled the area to cement the grave of Pir Mankay, a saint who used to meditate there. In no time the gravediggers’ spades hit the treasure buried for centuries beneath. A sizeable quantity of silver coins were thus stolen and sold to jewellers in Rawalpindi.
Police subsequently arrested the thieves and recovered the ancient artefacts which were handed over to Peshawar Museum authorities. Thus the existence of this fascinating settlement on Pir Mankey de Dheri (Mound of Pir Mankay) came to be known.
Opening up the black box
Archaeologists were quick to react and soon a full-scale excavation project was launched by the University of Peshawar archaeology department. The initiative was headed by archaeologists and historians Professor FA Durrani, Dr Shafiqur Rehman Dar and Shah Nazar. By 1997, the entire site was brushed up. Spacious houses, a medium-sized fortress, a large temple complex with a smaller place of worship inside, were unearthed. All artefacts, including vessels and tools, were sent to the provincial capital’s museum. The excavators probably lost interest as the project was soon shelved, paving way for illegal digging for valuables, Muhammad Aslam, a resident of Mankrai village, told The Express Tribune.
Another villager Waheed Khan said wild vegetation has enfeebled the structure, but illegal digging has further harmed the site, one shovel-ful at a time.
Who’s to blame?
Social activist Qamar Hayat said following the 18th Amendment, the control of heritage sites has been handed over to provincial authorities whose responsibility is to safeguard them. “Haripur houses most of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s major archaeological sites. A museum should be constructed here, as it was earlier approved in 2008,” he said, adding all unearthed artefacts should be brought back to the district.
When approached for a comment, Peshawar archaeology department official Maseeullah expressed his ignorance over the discovery.
Hazara University assistant professor Dr Shakirullah Khan stressed on the need to preserve the Indo-Scythian city and develop Haripur’s tourism industry.
Answering a question, Shakirullah said the then HU vice chancellor Dr Ehsan had approved the construction of a museum near Fort Harkishan Garh and the late tehsil nazim Iftikhar Ahmed Khan had also allocated land for the purpose. “Following the latter’s assassination and the former’s transfer to Mardan University, the project was put on the backburner,” he said.
Author: Muhammad Sadaqat | Source: The Express Tribune [June 02, 2015]
The robbers worked in 10 separate groups and four suspects are archaeologists, the ministry said. Each group had a clear division of labor covering everything from excavation to sales, the ministry said.
They were found to have robbed ancient tombs from the Neolithic Age to Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in seven provinces and 10 cities, it said.
Police have recovered some extremely precious artifacts including jadeware and earthenware dating to the Neolithic Age, porcelain from the Liao Dynasty (907-1125), as well as ironware, silverware and gold items from the Jin (1115-1234) and Yuan (1206-1368) dynasties, The Beijing Times reported yesterday.
“Many recovered pieces fill in gaps that existed in our archaeological finds,” said Zhang Guilian, director of the Liaoning cultural relics administration.
The pieces included a coiled jade dragon, one of the earliest known representations of the Chinese totem. It had been sold by an archaeologist surnamed Deng for 3.2 million yuan (US$516,000), the report said.
The cross-provincial network emerged after police in Liaoning Province found signs of illegal excavations in Niuheliang, a Neolithic site in Chaoyang City, the newspaper said.
The site was discovered in 1981 and given protected status in 1988. It boasts ancient temples, altars and tombs believed to have significant scientific, historical and artistic value. The discovery of the site provided new evidence that Chinese civilization originated about 5,000 years ago.
After a five-month investigation, Chaoyang police located several gangs and their ringleaders, the report said.
One alleged ringleader, surnamed Yao, 53, had more than 30 years of grave robbery experience, according to the report. He used astrology and feng shui, a Chinese system of geomancy, to decide where to dig. He asked subordinates, mostly farmers, to do the excavation work, police were cited as saying.
He robbed tombs in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Hebei and his actions damaged the relics, police said in the report.
His group was found to have committed 23 robberies at ancient tombs or cultural relic sites, the report said. Police have recovered 263 pieces from the group, the newspaper added.
Last December, police from seven provinces and 10 cities launched the first intensive crackdown and netted 78 suspects. In follow-up operations police caught another 97, according to the newspaper report.
Author: Li Qian | Source: Shanghai Daily [May 28, 2015]
Mes Aynak is a vast site in a mountainous area south of Kabul, near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan and adjacent to Taliban supply routes. The area is roughly the size of the city of Pompeii in Italy. Archaeologists say it is one of the richest sites in the country, with objects dating back 5,000 years. Excavations were conducted recently with the support of the French government and continue with urgency with a skeleton Afghan crew. Yet more than 90% of the site still remains unexamined.
It is almost sure to be under-examined. Mes Aynak is also the site of extensive copper deposits, which explains why it was a trading centre for centuries. The name Mes Anynak means “little source of copper,” although “little” understates the case. Those deposits are now under contract for extraction by China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a state-owned Chinese mining conglomerate that plans to begin mining the site this year. The copper underneath is said to be worth $100 billion, according to the Afghan government. That is an amount that might make the occasional Taliban attack seem tolerable.
The fight over Mes Aynak is the subject of this documentary film by Brent Huffman. The main narrator of the grim tale is the Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori. With the help of French archaeologists, Temori and his team have unearthed temples, fortifications, objects and stupas (memorials) that reflect the Buddhist and Hellenistic styles common to the region. But China Metallurgical Group Corporation has built an extensive modern camp for workers and is poised to remove the hills and the ancient remains beneath with modern bulldozers.
We are also told by former government employees that the minister responsible for the deal— which involved a Chinese payment of some $3 billion to the minister—is living in a luxurious new house. (That official has since resigned and has accused his successor of corruption, Huffman says.)
International protests have not made much difference. Alarmed archaeologists and Buddhists around the world achieved a brief delay by raising their voices, yet the mining seems set to begin.
Saving Mes Aynak does not fit the usual contours of films about art. There are exquisite objects on screen that came fr om recent excavations, although most of them are too recently unearthed to be conserved and exhibited in a delicately-lit jewel-box museum context. They are hardly the proven treasures that might induce politicians to fight for preservation.
A chilling parallel to this film came in another documentary at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Overburden by Chad Stevens examines the practice of mountaintop removal to extract coal quickly and cheaply over a vast area, with a fraction of the workers required in the conventional deep mining process. Citizens in West Virginia who feared the destruction of their homes and water sources locked horns with a huge coal company, Massey Energy (which has since been sold to Alpha Natural Resources), and coalminers who were fighting for their jobs.
Saving Mes Aynak involves a hauntingly similar standoff. Overburden is the mining term that refers to rock and dirt between the surface and mineral deposits. In Mes Aynak, 5,000 years of culture are the overburden.
Huffman shows grim video of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2002, yet at a time when the destruction of ancient cultures is a stated policy of the Islamic State, Saving Mes Aynak presents us with a different crisis: the horror of business as usual. Under governments wh ere conservation doesn’t count for much, the race for resources runs faster than rescue archaeology.
Author: David D'Arcy | Source: The Art Newspaper [May 30, 2015]
A team of heritage preservation experts inspected the work on Wednesday and announced that the project was complete.
"This repair work has tackled a series of technical challenges to preserve the cultural relic with modern scientific technologies and new materials to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the statue," said Huang Kezhong, the leader of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage Inspection Team.
The team has also suggested the local government should repair the Great Mercy Pavilion, which houses the statue, as soon as possible.
The Dazu Rock Carvings, 60 kilometers west of Chongqing, date to the Song (960-1279) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties and comprise more than 5,000 statues. They were opened to Chinese visitors in 1961 and foreign visitors in 1980. The carvings were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
"They are remarkable for their aesthetic quality, their rich diversity of subject matter, secular and religious, and the light that they shed on everyday life during this period. They provide outstanding evidence of the harmonious synthesis of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism," the citation said.
The statue of Kwan-yin in Baoding Mountain was carved about 800 years ago during the South Song Dynasty (1127-1276), with 830 hands in an area of 88 square meters in the hillside. It is 7.7 meters tall and 12.5 meters wide, featuring color painting and gold foil. It is the largest of its kind in China.
Water seepage and weather damage caused the statue to deteriorate, and a conservation project began in April 2011. It was listed as the top restoration project by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
The work was led by the China Cultural Heritage Protection Research Institute. Experts from Dunhuang Research Academy, the Academy of Dazu Rock Carving, Peking University, Tsinghua University and China University of Geosciences also participated.
Three phases
The project went through three phases from inspection, planning and the actual repair work. The team used X-ray and 3-D laser scanning to collect information needed to effect the restoration.
"We found 34 kinds of viruses on the sculpture that have greatly damaged the historical and artistic value of the carving," said Zhan Changfa, the chief scientist of the restoration project.
They also found that 283 of the statue's 830 hands and arms were damaged. To respect the religious history, the team consulted reference books and pictures to ensure the restoration was accurate.
The major part of the restoration involved attaching a new layer of gold foil to the statue. The original foil was between 83 percent and 92 percent gold. In some parts the statue had six layers of gold foil as a result of restoration work in the past.
An ancient technique from the Song Dynasty was applied. The gold foil was first separated from the statue, washed in pure water and alcohol before being reapplied. Once in place, it was painted with three coats of lacquer.
The statue is due to reopen to the public on June 13, which is China's Cultural Heritage Day.
Author: Tan Yingzi | Source: China Daily [May 30, 2015]
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