Workshop for the collaborative planning of an international conference on the Tianlongshan Caves

The University of Chicago Center in Beijing
20th floor, Culture Plaza
No. 59A Zhong Guan Cun Street
Haidian District Beijing 100872

The Tianlongshan caves are now in a seriously damaged state, with many of the sculptures broken and dispersed in collections around the world. The process of their destruction began in the 1920’s when Buddhist sculptures came to be regarded as art that fetched high prices in the then-burgeoning international art market. The Tianlongshan Caves Project has been investigating, recording and archiving the known sculptures outside of China with digital imaging and 3D scanning technology. It has also collected historical material, old photographs, and past studies of the caves to create an extensive database and is constructing a website to promote better understanding of the former appearance and meaning of the caves.

In order to ensure a useful and successful conference we held this planning meeting to which we invited Chinese scholars to collaborate with the planning process. Prof. Li Song, a specialist in Buddhist art at Peking University, has agreed to serve on the conference planning Steering Committee, and other scholars will also participate in our planning workshop.  We will hold our planning session in two parts: on site at Tianlongshan, where we can best consider what should be covered, and in Beijing where we will meet at the Beijing Center.

Steering Committee:
Paul Copp, EALC, University of Chicago
Li Song, College of Art, Peking University
Wei-cheng Lin, Art History, University of Chicago
Katherine Tsiang, Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago
Wu Hung, Art History, University of Chicago

Other workshop participants may include:
Li Yuqun, Institute of Archeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science
Zhang Zong, Institute of Religion, Chinese Academy of Social Science
Shi Jinming, Director, Shanxi Museum
Yu Hao, Director, Office for Preservation and Management of the Tianlongshan Caves
Zhao Hui, Director, College of Art, Taiyuan University of Technology