Beijing's Yunju Temple is harnessing cutting-edge digital technologies to safeguard its priceless collection of stone sutras, some of which date back over 1,400 years.
The stone sutras, known as Fangshan stone sutras, are listed among Chinese archival documentary heritage on Monday.
The carvings of the stone sutras began in the late Sui Dynasty (581-618) by monk Jingwan, founder of the Yunju Temple, and went through six dynasties, spanning 1,039 years before it was finished.
The temple now houses 14,278 stone slabs of sutras, featuring more than 35 million characters. To better protect this invaluable heritage, the temple has turned to cutting-edge digital preservation methods.
Using advanced techniques such as lighting matrix data acquisition and visual computing, preservation experts first conduct non-contact scanning to document the sutras' colors, carving lines, and surface depth.
They then use computer graphics and image synthesis algorithms to reveal details that have become invisible to the naked eye.
"This photo shows a stone sutra where many characters have worn away and some carvings have even flaked off. But the digital algorithms technology can help restore the original carving lines by analyzing their color differences. Our next step is to create 3D models for those sutras, aiming to bring these artifacts back to life and fully showcase their historical value," explained Zhang Zhutong, director of the temple's cultural relics management department.
Beyond their religious importance, the sutras also serve as a cultural treasure, reflecting the technological and artistic prowess of their time.
"These stone sutras demonstrate Beijing's advancements across multiple sectors at that time -- from economic and cultural development to craftsmanship, including techniques in iron smelting and gold-copper alloying," said Luo Zhao, director of the temple's cultural research center.
Yunju Temple harnesses digital technologies to preserve millennium-old stone scriptures
