The University of Chicago-Initiated Tianlongshan Caves Project

Some of the finest Buddhist sculptures produced in Chinese history belong to the Tianlongshan (Heavenly Dragon Mountain) complex. The site is located some thirty-five kilometers southwest of Taiyuan, in central Shanxi province, China, an area with a rich history of Buddhist and Daoist practice. Construction of the complex began in the sixth century under the Eastern Wei (534–50) and Northern Qi (550–77) dynasties, which had capitals in the region, and continued until the Tang (618–907) dynasty. In total, twenty-five sandstone caves were cut into the site’s two mountains.

When scholars and curators recognized the complex’s art historical importance during the 1920s, Tianlongshan fell victim to collectors and dealers looking to supply the international art market. Sculptures were cut from the rock, and the site was stripped of many of its most important works, either completely or in part, in grotesque acts of wanton theft and vandalism.

In 2013, the University of Chicago-led Tianlongshan Caves Project set out to document the twenty-one most important caves in the complex. Managed by Dr. Katherine Tsiang with Professor Wu Hung as principal investigator, the project is a unique digital collaboration. Innovatively using a number of technologies and forms of documentation, it addresses issues of provenance and dispersal from the Tianlongshan site. The result is a thoughtful and comprehensive digital reconstruction that seeks to reunite removed sculptures with their original locations.

The collaboration has involved an impressive number of international museums; all are listed on the website, as well as private collectors.

The Tianlongshan Caves Project website is a rich resource for anyone interested in Chinese Buddhist art (fig. 1). Short of visiting Tianlongshan, there can be no better way of understanding the layout and spatiality of the individual caves and their contents. The only thing I felt was missing is an overall map, whether 2D or 3D, to aid understanding of the plan, elevation, dispersal, and physical relation of the caves, particularly for those who have never been there. However, there are useful photographs, both contemporary and historical, of Tianlongshan under the Caves section of the website, as well as an embedded Google Maps element within this section which allows users to zoom in on the Tianlongshan location.

Overall, the website is very well structured and laid out, and its interface is immediately and intuitively navigable. As a result, it takes only minimal exploration for the viewer to begin to realize the rewards it offers.

Each of the twenty-one caves has been photographed with exterior and interior shots along with brief but informative contextual descriptions. Clicking on an individual cave entry brings up a list of its attributed sculptures, now dispersed among museum collections (fig. 2). Some entries also include historic photographs from the 1920s. Contemporary photography of the caves, completed in 2015, is one of two stages of documentation. The second stage, of full 3D documentation of the cave interiors, is being undertaken in summer of 2016 and represents a very exciting application of these technologies, the results of which we will hopefully see added to the Tianlongshan site in the near future.

Another key feature of the website is its database of 155 sculptures and sculpture fragments. The database is searchable by museum, figure type (bodhisattva, buddha, disciple, etc.), dynasty, cave location, and whether the sculpture has been digitized in 3D (fig. 3). Photography allows the user to see each artifact from all angles, as well as to zoom in for a detailed view (fig. 4).

In addition, the viewer can click a button to switch into a mode that displays the artifact in 3D (fig. 5). These 3D models have been scanned in high resolution, so viewing them can be unexpectedly rewarding, offering a forensic level of detail. Various tools allow the user to pan, zoom, and rotate the 3D renderings. Additionally, users can “light” an artifact from any angle and thereby explore its dimensionality in a truly remarkable way. Combined, these tools offer incredible views that would otherwise be impossible without extensive handling of the actual artifacts.

The Exhibitions section of the website offers additional information showing the stages of production for the 3D models, as well as describing their technological features. The final renders are virtually identical to the originals (pun intended) in that they are indistinguishable for photographic equivalents. These models, and the technology used to produce them, were the focus of a yearlong exhibition at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing concluding in September 2016. This section concludes with some images of the 3D models combined with global satellite images showing Tianlongshan sculptures now in overseas museums floating in a night sky above those museum. These are perhaps incidental, but nevertheless beguiling images.

The Tianlongshan Caves Project builds upon the University of Chicago’s earlier Xiangtangshan Caves Project, focused on another Northern Qi cave complex in southern Hebei province. That undertaking involved the same senior staff, technical approaches, and aims, as well as a similarly impressive degree of international private and institutional collaboration. The projects also share common approaches: innovative 3D modeling and digitization, historic and contemporary photographic documentation of each piece of sculpture, databases of sculpture, and an accompanying exhibition project. More information is available on the Xiangtangshan Caves Project website (http://xts.uchicago.edu/).

The Tianlongshan website is presented bilingually in English and Simplified Chinese, and it offers a great deal of supporting information for those curious about its technical aspects. This includes a list of the various software packages—some of them proprietary and developed or customized for the earlier Xiangtangshan Caves Project, most notably the interactive website technologies—as well as an outline of the techniques and procedures used to document the artifacts. The Tianlongshan Caves Project is the result of impressive detective work conducted on a global scale. A complex art-historical jigsaw puzzle has been digitally reassembled in a commendable undertaking wrought of cutting-edge technology, international collaboration, and outstanding scholarship. The resource complements published scholarship on Tianlongshan, but at the same times stands on its own by allowing scholars and students to investigate the complex in ways that were unimaginable until very recently. The project also offers the kind of interactivity that would lend itself very well to classroom-based explorations of Tianlongshan.

The Xiangtangshan and Tianlongshan projects strongly suggest that such approaches have a role to play in digitally reconstructing sites that have suffered from war, looting, or erosion, or that are too remote or fragile for non-specialist access. An expanded archive or library of such projects would not only usher in an era of increased awareness of these archaeological sites, but also might facilitate their preservation, research and study, and use as teaching resources. One also wonders whether some of these 3D models might eventually lead to 3D printed recreations of the Tianlongshan sculptures. The Tianlongshan Caves Project is a wonderful initiative and a great credit to the staff behind it at the University of Chicago and elsewhere.

Kevin McLoughlin is an independent scholar, curator, art historian, lecturer, and freelance editor specializing in China, with secondary interests in Korea, and Tibet and the Himalayas.