Aurel Stein: The Man Who Emptied the Caves of Dunhuang

In 1907 Aurel Stein left a sealed cave at Dunhuang with the world’s oldest dated printed book. The greatest find — or the greatest theft? This documentary follows Sir Marc Aurel Stein across the Taklamakan Desert and the Silk Road: from the buried kingdoms of Niya, Loulan and Miran to the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas at Dunhuang, the Mogao Caves, and the Library Cave whose Dunhuang manuscripts — including the Diamond Sutra of 868 — he carried to London. It traces his rivals Sven Hedin and Paul Pelliot, the German scholar Albert von Le Coq, his patron Lord Curzon, and the Daoist guardian Wang Yuanlu — and asks the question two nations still argue over: was this rescue, or robbery? ARCHIVAL SOURCES Wikimedia Commons British Museum & British Library — Stein Collection (Dunhuang-Manuskripte & Malereien) Bibliothèque nationale de France (u. a. Lord Curzon) Aurel Steins books: Ruins of Desert Cathay, Ancient Khotan, Serindia #Dunhuang #AurelStein #SilkRoad #DiamondSutra #History