Wang Yuanlu

Abbot Wang

Wang Yuanlu (Traditional Chinese: 王圓籙; Simplified Chinese: 王圆箓; pinyin: Wáng Yuánlù) (c.a. 1849 - 1931) was a Taoist priest acting as an abbot of the caves in Dunhuang at the beginning of the 20th century, the discoverer of the Dunhuang manuscripts.

He discovered ancient Buddhist scriptures in a temple there. He first offered the manuscripts to local officials, in an attempt to gain funding for their conservation. He would later sell numerous manuscripts to archeologist Aurel Stein, who took a largely random selection of the works. Later Paul Pelliot would come to purchase the most valuable among them.

References

• Heimovics, Dick (1999). Connecting and Disconnections on the Silk Road
• Hopkirk, Peter (1980). Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 0-87023-435-8.

External links

• The Oldest Printed Text in the World - The Diamond Sutra
• The David Middleton Reed Collection of Chinese Studies