International Dunhuang Programme
| International Dunhuang Programme | |
|---|---|
| Location | Secretariat at the British Library, London, England |
| Established | 1994 |
| Branches | Centres at Beijing, Berlin, Dunhuang, Kyoto, Paris, and St Petersburg |
| Collection | |
| Size | Over 150,000 collection items from more than 40 institutions |
| Other information | |
| Website | idp.bl.uk |
The International Dunhuang Programme (IDP), formerly the International Dunhuang Project, is an international collaboration dedicated to the digitisation, preservation and study of manuscripts, artefacts and visual materials from the central and eastern Silk Road, particularly those originating from the Western Chinese city of Dunhuang and the Mogao Caves.The programme provides free online access to digitised collections of manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and other artefacts held by partner institutions worldwide via its digital database on the IDP website. The IDP also supports scholarly research, conservation training and public engagement related to Silk Road heritage to promote understandings of the history and cultures of those regions.
The programme was established by the British Library in 1994, and now includes over forty institutions in fifteen countries and territories. The seven founding partners are the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, the British Library, the Dunhuang Research Academy, the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the National Library of China and Ryukoku University. As of 1 January 2026 the online IDP database comprised 154,919 catalogue entries, 114,332 of which have been digitised. Most of the manuscripts in the IDP database are texts written in Chinese, but more than twenty different scripts and languages are represented, including Brahmi, Kharosthi, Khotanese, Sanskrit, Tangut, Tibetan, Tocharian and Old Uyghur. These collections represent a valuable resource to scholars worldwide.
Stephen F. Teiser, the D. T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University has said that the IDP “is filling a huge gap in the research, teaching and knowledge-production industry. The international orientation of the project means that all objects are completely accessible to all people who have internet access, and that’s a tremendous advantage.”
As part of the events to mark the 30th anniversary of the IDP in 2024, a new name, International Dunhuang Programme (rather than Project), was adopted.