(Photo Provided to China Daily)
Restoration
His elder sister and his son's objections to the work have dented his morale, he says.
Chang Shana, his sister is a former president of the Central Academy of Art and Design in Beijing. In a previous interview, she said she disagreed with the idea. She once visited the modern caves and found they were built on a "precipitous cliff whose natural conditions are unsuitable for caves". In addition, "the contents of the modern caves murals are incoherent", she says.
The cliff is 30 meters above Danghe River. Each year, water drawn from the reservoir slams against the foot of the cliff.
Three kilometers away, the river flow constantly shakes the Western Thousand-Buddha Cave. There are said to have originally been more than 2,000 caves, but the vibration has, over time, reduced them to less than 20.
In July 2008 a part of the modern caves collapsed, and a mural in Cave 1, painted by Chang Jiahuang's mother Li Chengxian, was stolen as the result of a passage that the collapse opened up.
"Police in Dunhuang helped retrieve the painting after 17 days' investigation," Chang says.
He chose the location because almost all the good spots are included in the Mogao Grottoes protection area, an idea his parents came up with.
In a transcription of a conversation between Chang and his son that the father provided, the son said he had never thought it was his father who paid for the project, rather than the project paying him.
Chang Jiahuang has opened 20 caves over the years, and several years ago media quoted him as saying that if the project made no progress he would abandon it and seal the caves with two trucks of concrete.
The plan for Cave 1 is for it to hold facsimiles of precious works from the Mogao Grottoes that were looted and taken overseas. In Cave 2 the aim is to restore facsimiles of the best works from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) to their original colors.
"Artists from all over the world are welcome to create works in two themes: environmental protection and peace," he says.
