|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Early
Christian Remains of Inner MongoliaThe early Christian presence in Inner Mongolia forms the subject of this book. These Nestorian remains must primarily be attributed to the Öngüt, a Turkic people closely allied to the Mongols. Writing in Syriac, Uighur and Chinese scripts and languages, the Nestorian Öngüt drew upon a variety of religions and cultures to decorate their gravestones with crosses rising from lotus flowers, dragons and Taoist imagery. This heritage also portrays designs found in the Islamic world. Taking a closer look at the discovery of this material and its significance for the study of the early Church of the East under the Mongols, the author reconstructs the Nestorian culture of the Öngüt. The reader will find many newly discovered objects not published before. At the same time this study demonstrates how many remaining objects were appopriated and, in many cases, vanished after their discovery.
Tjalling Halbertsma, Ph.D. (2007) in the Arts, University of Leiden, has
worked as an advisor to the President of Mongolia. His documentation of Nestorian
objects from Inner Mongolia has been published by Monumenta Serica.
Publication
of sourcebook (Monumenta Serica, 2005)Tjalling Halbertsma, “Some field notes and images of stone material from graves of the Church of the East in Inner Mongolia, China (with additional rubbings of seven stones by Wei Jian)”, Monumenta Serica, 53 (2005) 113-244.
also see:
Tjalling Halbertsma, “Some notes on past and present field research on gravestones and related stone material of the Church of the East in Inner Mongolia, China”, in: Malek (2006a) 303-319.
Tjalling Halbertsma, “Some field notes and images of stone sculptures found at Nestorian sites in Inner Mongolia, China”, paper presented at: 2nd International Conference Research on the Church of the East in China and Asia, Salzburg, June 1-6 2006.
The project was awarded its second research grant from the Hulsewé Foundation in The Netherlands in 2004. The grant supports the documentation of legends and oral history relating to the heritage of the Church of the East in Inner Mongolia. The project focuses on story telling about remains, graveyards and abandoned cities of the Church of the East. Where possible the project also documents local memory of modern exploration and twentieth century foreign research relating to these sites and heritage.
As herders and settlers are encouraged to migrate from the region where most of this heritage is found, documenting and recording these legends seems more urgent then ever.
The project will be conducted in close collaboration with the Cultural Relics Bureau’s of the respective areas.
The research material is to be partly published by Monumenta Serica, Sankt
Augustin – Germany in 2005. A PhD-project is currently under discussion
at Leiden University, The Netherlands and academic publishers by Brill, Leiden
- The Netherlands.
*The Hulsewé-Wazniewski Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
and Research in the Archaeology, Art and Material Culture of China at Leiden
University.
Hulsewé Foundation*
project in Inner Mongolia (2003)The project aims to record the rapidly disappearing heritage of the Yuan dynasty (Nestorian) Church of the East in Inner Mongolia, China. The project was started in 2001 and received in 2003 its first research grant from the Hulsewé Foundation at Leiden University in The Netherlands. In China the project is generously and actively supported by appropriate cultural relics bureau's.
Until 2003, over forty gravestones and related material from the Church of the East have been documented through photography and rubbings. The material resulted in 2004 in two exhibitions held at the Sinological Institute of Leiden University, The Netherlands and The National Museum for Ethnology in Leiden, The Netherlands (see under exhibitions). An opening seminar at the Sinological Institute was attended by scholars from Leiden University as well as a representative from the Inner Mongolia Cultural Relics Bureau. Lectures for a more general public were held at the opening of the exhibition at the The National Museum.
A third exhibition opens at the Monumenta Serica Institute in Sankt Augustin,
Germany in 2006.
The material is to be partly published by Monumenta Serica, Sankt Augustin
- Germany, in 2005. A PhD-project is currently under discussion at Leiden
University, The Netherlands and academic publishers by Brill in Leiden, The
Netherlands.
*The Hulsewé-Wazniewski Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
and Research in the Archaeology, Art and Material Culture of China at Leiden
University.