Officials of local cultural relics departments and experts in northwest China's Gansu Province are calling for proper protection measures for Shuilu paintings collected in the Gansu Corridor region, which are deteriorating.
   
A type of religious painting, the Shuilu paintings used to be hung for Shuilu (Water and Land) rites, Taoist or Buddhist rites performed to memorialize the dead.
   
Originating in India, the Shuilu rites started in China in the Sixth Century, thrived in the Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming Dynasties, declined in the Qing Dynasty and disappeared in the Republic of China.
   
Xie Shengbao, a researcher with the Dunhuang Research Institute, has twice conducted investigations on the Shuilu paintings collected in the Gansu Corridor region, an important section of the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean Sea extending some 6,440 kilometers and linking China with the Roman Empire.
   
Xie discovered 486 scrolls of Shuilu paintings distributed in local museums of the Gansu Corridor region including the city of Wuwe and Gulang, Shandan and Minyue counties.
   
Among them, 216 scrolls were collected in local museums of Gulang, Minyue and Shandan counties. Mainly painted during the period from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the early years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), most of the scrolls have been seriously damaged and some cannot be unrolled.
   
The 270 scrolls in the Wuwei museum were all painted in the Qing Dynasty. Although a little younger, 140 of the scrolls are seriously damaged, demanding emergency protection.
   
Most of the 60 scrolls collected in the Shandan county museum were painted in the Ming Dynasty and re-mounted in the Qing Dynasty, said Wang Qingbo, director of the county culture bureau.
   
Before being collected in the 1960's, the painting had been hanging in local temples where they were exposed to damage from soot, mice and worms, Wang said.
   
Mostly paper silk paintings mounted several times, the paintings now face such problems as seasoning and chapping [Check translation for both words. Neither really makes sense here.], said Zhou Chunlin, deputy director of the bureau.
   
"If proper protection measures are not taken immediately, the problem will get worse," said Zhou.
   
According to Zhou, the Shandan county museum has asked the provincial Bureau of Relics for emergency protection and repair.
  
"But it is very difficult to remove the old mount for restoration," said Zhou.
   
According to Liu Maode, deputy curator of the Wuwei museum, there are about 900 scrolls of Shuilu paintings collected in China.
   
According to Xie, the cultural relics departments of Gansu have organized a special team, planning to complete the investigation and preservation work of the Shuilu paintings in the Gansu Corridor in three years.
   
"On the basis of this work, we will make a project for the better use of the Shuilu Paintings," said Xie.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2005)