

Penn libraries is dedicated to collecting materials about the Dunhuang manuscripts and the cave art in physical and digital formats. In their diversity of languages (among them Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Uyghur), the Dunhuang materials at Penn Libraries represents our larger goals at the Center for Global Collections in the breadth of languages and topics.
During the 11th century a massive library of manuscripts was sealed in the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang (Gansu Province, China). This library contained texts from the 4th-11th centuries that depicted the diversity and beauty of the Silk Road in Western China. These manuscripts and the cave paintings found within the caves are lush with details about religious and secular life along the Silk Road. They provide information on the linguistic, economic, social, and religious dimensions of life for peoples in Central and East Asia. Eventually, the library’s manuscripts were removed from the caves and displaced to various locations in Europe and East Asia during the 19th century. Dunhuang scholars are thus faced with some unique challenges as they navigate materials scattered across the globe.
The Penn Libraries is dedicated to collecting materials about the Dunhuang manuscripts and the cave art in physical and digital formats. Large sets of reproduced primary source materials and secondary literature are published relatively frequently. In their diversity of languages (among them Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Uyghur), the Dunhuang materials at the Penn Libraries represent our larger goals at the Center for Global Collections in the breadth of languages and topics. We collect publications by many presses, including the Shanghai Chinese Classics Publishing house 上海古籍出版社, the Gansu Education Press 甘肃教育出版社, and the Dunhuang Literature and Art Publishing house 敦煌文艺出版社.
To explore Penn’s holdings, search for “Dunhuang” in the library catalog.