Meghan Howard | TCSRS Fellow

This trip was my first chance to see Dunhuang manuscripts in person. I have been working with Dunhuang materials for over ten years using images available online. Compared with the grainy black-and-white reproductions that scholars of an earlier era relied upon, we are positively spoiled by today’s high resolution color images. Nevertheless, my experiences on this trip really brought home the importance of seeing these objects firsthand. Examining these manuscripts in person dramatically shifted my interpretation of them, permitted me to transcribe text that is not clear in the available images, and most importantly helped me envision their original context.