{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O92391"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O92391/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF7065/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF7065/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AF7065","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O92391/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O92391","accessionNumber":"LOAN:STEIN.590","objectType":"Banner fragment","titles":[{"title":"The Stein Collection","type":"named collection"}],"summaryDescription":"This embroidered silk textile once formed part of a Buddhist ritual banner. Such banners were given by pious donors as offerings to honour the Buddha . The banners were carried aloft hooked on a staff and they also fluttered from the tops of <i>stupa</i> (domed memorial shrines).\r\nThis banner part was recovered from Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes. This shrine site is one of China’s great Buddhist pilgrimage complexes and is situated near the oasis town of Dunhuang. \r\nThe site is also part of an area now referred to as the Silk Road, a series of overland trade routes that crossed Asia, from China to Europe. The most notable item traded was silk. Camels and horses were used as pack animals and merchants passed their goods from oasis to oasis. The Silk Road was also important for the exchange of ideas – while silk textiles travelled west from China, Buddhism entered China from India in this way.\r\nThis object was brought back from Central Asia by the explorer and archaeologist Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943). The Victoria and Albert Museum has around 600 ancient and medieval textiles recovered by Stein at the beginning of the twentieth century. The textiles range in date from the second century BC to the twelfth century AD. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.","physicalDescription":"Banner part with head, suspension loop, part of an arm and another arm intact. The head is of monochrome patterned weave cream silk with unidentified pattern, covered with an embroidered floral lotus flower design in orange, green, white, blue and brown silk thread. There are some unidentified characters stitched onto the head and some Chinese characters painted onto the edge of the above. The head border is of monochrome purple gauze weave with the remains of green silk thread tassel-like tufts attached and a suspension loop of polycrome orange, blue and cream woven silk secured to border with a pointed tab of monochrome cream gauze weave with green and orange silk tassel-like tufts at the points.\r\n There are the remains of one arm in monochrome green gauze weave, and on the facing side another arm of monochrome plain weave dark blue silk.  This dark blue arm is backed with green gauze stitched with yellow silk thread.\r\n\r\nWeave structures:\r\n1. Suspension loop\r\nMain warp: silk, single, beige, uncountable; Binding warp: silk, Z twisted, single, beige, uncountable; Weft: silk, blue, orange, etc. uncountable. Weave structure: 1/2S weft faced compound twill\r\n2. Streamer \r\nWarp: silk, brown, 34 warps/cm; Main weft: silk, single, beige, 12 wefts/cm; Binding weft: silk, single, beige, 12 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 2/1Z warp faced compound twill\r\n3. Head border\r\nWarp: silk, single, dark, purpleish red, 71 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, dark purpleish red, 15 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 4-end complex gauze\r\n4. Infill with floral pattern, embroidery\r\nWarp: silk, single, white, 43 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, white, 32 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/5S twill for pattern on 1/2S twill for foundation\r\n5. Panel\r\nWarp: silk, single, dark purple, 52 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, dark purple, 12 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave\r\n6. Streamer\r\nWarp: silk, single, blue, 49 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, blue, 21 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave\r\n7. Streamer\r\nWarp: silk, single, grayish green, 25 warps/cm; Weft: silk ,single, grayish green, 15 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 4-end complex gauze\r\nEmbroidery: Threads: silk; Colours: brown, beige, light orange, orange, dark brown, light green, green, light yellowish green, light blue, blue, blueish green, etc.\r\nStitch: satin stitch, layered stitch","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silk (textile)","id":"AAT243428"},{"text":"silk thread","id":"x30127"}],"techniques":[{"text":"plain weave","id":"x37295"},{"text":"patterned weave","id":"x37271"},{"text":"gauze weave","id":"x37290"},{"text":"embroidery","id":"AAT53653"},{"text":"stitching","id":"AAT53660"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pattern, plain and gauze woven silk, embroidered with stitching","categories":[{"text":"Archaeology","id":"THES48874"},{"text":"Buddhism","id":"THES48984"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"}],"styles":[{"text":"Tang","id":"AAT18420"},{"text":"Central Asian","id":"AAT18281"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"EAS","id":"THES48596"},"images":["2006AF7065"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES301559"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Banner part","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Dunhuang","id":"x32484"},"association":{"text":"discovered","id":"x37269"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"9th century to 10th century","earliest":"0800-01-01","latest":"1000-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Stein Textile Loan Collection. On loan from the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Copyright: Government of India","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"79","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"46","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"chinese","medium":"","method":"","position":"edge of head","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"In handwritten form but method not clear","note":"In handwritten form but method not clear; Chinese; edge of head"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"Dunhuang is at the eastern end of the southern Silk Road, in present-day Gansu Province. It lies between the western reaches of China and the Tarim Basin. When China began to expand into Central Asia during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), Dunhuang served as a base for military operations and trade. In the succeeding centuries, Buddhist shrines were established southeast of Dunhuang in a series of man-made caves called Qianfodong, \"Caves of the Thousand Buddhas\" (today also known as the Mogao Grottoes). Here spectacular cave temples were cut out of the cliffs, beginning in the fourth century AD. Over a period of several centuries, communities of Buddhist monks filled the caves with splendid sculpture and wall paintings. These included colossal Buddha statues, painted clay sculptures of deities, elaborate murals of Buddhist legends, and thousands of tiny painted Buddha images; all of which gave the site its name, Qianfodong. Buddhist cave temples had first been established in at Bamiyan (Afghanistan) and Gandhara (formerly in India, now Pakistan). At Qianfodong, Stein found paintings of graceful figures in the Gandharan style among landscapes and buildings that were distinctly Chinese; a fusion of Indian and Chinese art, which he had noted elsewhere along the Silk Road.\r\n\r\nIn 1900, a Daoist monk named Wang Yuanlu discovered a secret cave at Qianfodung, which contained thousands of documents and paintings. Stein purchased a significant amount of this material from Wang during his visit to the Dunhuang in 1907. Among the many religious works were Buddhist, Jewish, Nestorian, Daoist and Confucian texts; all of which dated from approximately 400 to 1000 A.D.  Numerous languages were represented as well, including Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Hebrew. Stein also acquired many textile pieces. Most of these were silk, for Dunhuang lay on the main trade route between silk-growing regions of China and Central Asia. Elaborate embroideries depicted Buddhist legends and processions of donors. Patterned silks included Chinese and Sassanian (Persian) designs. From China came floral and geometric patterns, combined with figures of animals and birds. Sassanian motifs included pairs of confronted ducks, lions, and other beasts, combined with medallions and quatrefoils. Stein also found undecorated silks used as processional banners and valances for decorating bases of statues. The cave was sealed soon after 1000 A.D., apparently to protect the contents from invading armies. The V&A holds, on loan, a large number of textiles from Dunhuang, including plain and pattern woven silks in many colours, painted Buddhist banners and canopies, and wrappers for Buddhist texts.","briefDescription":"Banner fragment, plain-weave and figured silk, embroidered in satin stitch and layered stitch, found in Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, 800-1000","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"O'Neale, Lila.M., and Durrell, Dorothy F., 'An Analysis of the Central Asian Silks excavated by Sir Aurel Stein', reprinted from <u> Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Autumn 1945 </u> Albuquerque, MX: University of New Mexico Press, 1945, pp392-446"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Stein, Aurel, <u> Serindia: Detailed Report of Exploration in Central Asia and Westernmost China Carried Out and Described Under the Orders of H.M Indian Government </u>, 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. II, p.1030. Vol. IV, Pl.CXI."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Zhao Feng, ed. <u>Textiles from Dunhuang in UK Collections</u>. Shanghai: Donghua University Press, 2007. pp. 296/297."}],"production":"Found in Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes (Caves of the Thousand Buddhas).","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[{"text":"Stein","id":"N2850"}],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"floral patterns","id":"AAT10135"},{"text":"lotus","id":"AAT165258"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["LOAN:STEIN.590"],"accessionNumberNum":"590","accessionNumberPrefix":"LOAN:STEIN","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Stein number","id":"THES50251"},"number":"Ch.xxvi.002"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-30","recordCreationDate":"2004-02-10","availableToBook":false}}