Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c16.s1.t4.5

v2.c16.s1.t4.5

In his expeditions in 1900-1901, 1906-1908 and 1913-1916, Sir Aurel Stein was sponsored by the British Museum and British Indian government, respectively. He went to China with a passport issued by British India and was accompanied by several Sikhs from Punjab. He discovered many historical documents and objects, even including Neolithic stoneware and funerary objects and textiles from 8^th century CE. He found 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas' near Dunhuang which have a great store of paintings, temple banners and documents which were sealed up in 11^th century. Franches Wood, the curator of Chinese Collections of the British Library, included a note in his introduction to *A Catalogue of Dunhuang Texts Kept by the British Library* (Fang Guangchang, Religion Press, June 2000), to explain the origin of Chinese collections at the National Museum of India. It reads: “In his three expedition to Central Asia, Sir Aurel Stein was sponsored by the British Museum, where, for some time, part of materials he had collected were kept. In 1973, the British Library was established on the basis of British Museum’s Department of Manuscripts and Department of Printed Texts. Sir Aurel Stein’s materials were divided and assigned, along with