ANCIENT ART OF CHINESE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 September 1924, Page 14

ANCIENT ART OF CHINESE.

FOUND BY HARYARD MEN,

CAMBRIDGE (Mass.). Manuscripts, 2000 years old, some of them in Sanskrit, original holy books of the Buddhist faith, a beautiful bronze mirror and, specimens of sculpture more than ten centuries old are among the archaeological exhibits brought here by Langdon Warner, fellow for research in Asia, of Harvard University. Warner has completed a tour which started a year ago through Western China.

The trip, in which special search was made for traces of early Buddhist influences, carried the expedition along the ancient trade route to India and north -to the Gobi desert to an old city, now in ruins, at which Marco Polo outfitted six" centuries ago for his 40day journey to the Great Kahn’s capital, Karakorum.

At. the ancient- city, which Polo called Edsina, neither vegetable nor animal life is now possible. The camels, with which the expedition proceeded, were halted eight miles in the lear, and were used to haul water to the excavating party. The desert has advanced its frontiers, Warner said, and has surrounded the city 7 , of which tfie walls still stand, their sun-baked bricks etched and worn by the blowing sand, but with the gateways, curtain walls and bastions still plainly discernible. Fine specimens of stucco sculpture, the bronze mirror and other finds were duofrom the ruins.

Warner went in search of relics of the development of art in China, which followed the visits of the earliest of Indian traders. •He endeavoured to collect all available specimens of the early art surviving the centuries and to learn more of its early development. Some of the manuscripts that were brought back are believed to }*> original holy books of the Buddhist faith. Some are long paper scrolls in Sanskrit, brought from India, some are copies of these,' made in transit, and some are translations into early Chinese or Turki made by Central Asian converts. Their age is estimated to be about 2000 vears.

What he termed the prize of the entire collection is a statue of the ninth century unearthed in Western China, not a Buddha, but one of the attendant gods.

Warner told of discovering behind a small temple, high on the face of a cliff, a cave-chapel whose walls were literally covered with Buddhist figures, of a very early period, carved in the living rock. It is estimated that the carving dates back to .350 A.D. He told also of examining at Ho-nan, on the border of Turkestan, some excellent specimens of wall painting.