The story of Fan Jinshi (樊锦诗), female graduate of New China’s first four-year program in archaeology, who went on to spend 50-plus years in the desert overseeing the study, restoration and preservation of Buddhist cave-temples in Gansu Province, is now available in English — via my translation — as Daughter of Dunhuang: Memoir of a Mogao Grottoes Researcher.

The original Chinese, 《我心归处是敦煌》, has sold well over one-half million copies, and will be published in Hindi and Russian as well later in 2024. Turkish and Persian versions are also in the pipeline.

For more information about Fan Jinshi, who served as Director of Dunhuang Research Academy from 1998 to 2014, see here.

To read an excerpt from the English edition, visit Ancient Buddhist Cave-temples in the Desert, Red Guards & the Spirit of Peking U.

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