Chinese Buddhist Canon restoration needs 8 to 10 yrs

Beijing (CNS) -- The Chinese Buddhist Canon, the last official version in Chinese, carved on 79,036 boards during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), is being restored.

A group of more than 200 craftsmen at a special restoration base in Yufa township, Daxing District, Beijing are performing the painstaking work led by the municipal cultural relic authority, who confirm it is likely to take another eight to ten years.

Asia Pacific at Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the sponsor of the restoration and the base was opened to media visits on Tuesday when its president Brian Brille addressed the gathering and expressed his amazement not only at the large quantity, but also at the high historical, literary and artistic significance of the treasure.

Only 69,410 boards of the Canon have been preserved into our time, including Buddhist classics, treatises, quotations and historic literature by eminent monks of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (1279–1911).

The municipal authority launched the restoration project in 2009, and plans to protect the treasure by scientific means by building a digital data base of the Canon and republishing the remaining part.

The renovation is a novel attempt at cultural relic conservation, with an unprecedented use of market operations.