Not currently on display at the V&A

The Stein Collection

Banner
9th century to 10th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This silk textile is an incomplete Buddhist ritual banner. Such banners were carried aloft hooked on a staff and they also fluttered from the tops of stupa (domed memorial shrines). It was recovered from Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes, situated near the oasis town of Dunhuang. This shrine site is one of China’s great Buddhist pilgrimage complexes.

The site is also part of an area of Central Asia we now call 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 the 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.
This textile 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 from the Silk Road by Stein at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Stein Collection (named collection)
Materials and techniques
Pattern and plain woven silk with bamboo
Brief description
Pattern and plain woven silk banner
Physical description
Banner; head, first panel and one arm intact. Head consists of a suspension loop of monochrome white silk with red pigment, border of monochrome plain weave red silk and infill of damask weave brown silk, pattern unidentified. First panel consists of one piece of monochrome damask weave, brown silk, a quarter of which includes the loom end which is in plain weave, and there is a selvedge along one side and a shop mark in Chinese characters at top corner. Only one arm is intact, in monochrome patterned weave blue silk, pattern of spots composed of a pair of long-winged birds clinging to either side of a leafy spray, which branches over their heads. Remains of blue silk textile at bottom of banner. Two split bamboo reinforcements are also intact.

Weave structures:
1. Suspension loop
Warp: silk, single, white, 30 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, white, 22 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave
2. Heading border
Warp: silk, single, red, 54 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, red, 29 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave
3. Infill
Warp: silk, single, brown, 42 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, brown, 23 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/5S twill for pattern on 2/1S twill for foundation
4. Panel with ribbon pattern
Warp: silk, single, brown, 49 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, brown, 27 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/5S twill for pattern on 2/1S twill for foundation
5. Side streamer
Warp: silk, single, navy blue, 51 warps/cm; Weft: silk, single, navy blue, 36 wefts/cm. Weave structure: 1/5Z twill for pattern on 1/1 plain weave for foundation
Dimensions
  • Length: 92.5cm
  • Width: 37cm
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
(1) Maker's mark; Chinese; top corner of first panel; 700 - 900)
Credit line
Stein Textile Loan Collection. On loan from the Government of India and the Archaeological Survey of India. Copyright: Government of India.
Historical context
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.

In 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.
Production
Found in Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes (Caves of the Thousand Buddhas).
Subjects depicted
Association
Summary
This silk textile is an incomplete Buddhist ritual banner. Such banners were carried aloft hooked on a staff and they also fluttered from the tops of stupa (domed memorial shrines). It was recovered from Cave 17 of the Mogao Grottoes, situated near the oasis town of Dunhuang. This shrine site is one of China’s great Buddhist pilgrimage complexes.

The site is also part of an area of Central Asia we now call 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 the 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.
This textile 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 from the Silk Road by Stein at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some are silk while others are made from the wool of a variety of different animals.
Bibliographic references
  • Stein, Aurel, Serindia: Detailed Report of Exploration in Central Asia and Westernmost China Carried Out and Described Under the Orders of H.M Indian Government , 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921), vol. II, p.998. Vol.IV, pl.CXXI
  • Zhao Feng, ed. Textiles from Dunhuang in UK Collections. Shanghai: Donghua University Press, 2007. pp. 304/305
Other number
Ch.00339 - Stein number
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:STEIN.649

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Record createdDecember 5, 2003
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