{"id":20108,"date":"2018-06-25T12:33:48","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T19:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/?p=20108"},"modified":"2018-06-25T12:33:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T19:33:48","slug":"recalling-the-discovery-of-the-buddhist-dead-sea-scrolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/monkeymind\/2018\/06\/recalling-the-discovery-of-the-buddhist-dead-sea-scrolls.html","title":{"rendered":"Recalling the Discovery of the Buddhist “Dead Sea Scrolls”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Diamond<\/a><\/p>\n

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It was on this day in 1900 that the Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu, while trying to salvage ancient religious artwork in one of the ruined Caves of the Thousand Buddhas near Dunhuang, stumbled upon a long hidden door. He opened it, and it led into another cave now known as the renowned \u201cLibrary Cave.\u201d In that Library Cave he found a gigantic archive of documents.<\/p>\n

The archeologist Aurel Stein who was the first European to see the collection in 1906, described what he saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeaped up in layers, but without any order, there appeared in the dim light of the priest\u2019s little lamp a solid mass of manuscript bundles rising to a height of nearly ten feet, and filling, as subsequent measurement showed, close on 500 cubic feet. The area left clear within the room was just sufficient for two people to stand in.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

There were 1,100 bundles of scrolls and over 15,000 books in the collection, dating from the fifth to early eleventh centuries of our common era. They primarily touched on Buddhism<\/a>, but also contained documents relevant to Taoism, Confucianism, Nestorian Christianity<\/a>, Judaism, Manichaean, and even non-religious areas including astronomy, geography, and music.<\/p>\n

Of particular popular appeal is the oldest printed book in the world, a copy of the Buddhist<\/a> Diamond Sutra<\/a>.<\/p>\n