This project was supported by a
grant from the Asian Cultural
Council. Mr. Newman's "New Step Workshop" began September
4th, and almost immediately, the eager staff was initiating
preliminary treatments to two different sutras. Because each
sutra was hundreds of pages in length, these treatments were
both time and labour intensive. Procedures included: surface
cleaning, mending, removal of stains, the production of methyl
cellulose poultices, unbinding, and page numeration.
These
two sutras from the Museum of Religion's collection were
chosen for treatment because each presented the students with
unique conservation challenges. One sutra was comprised of
typical Mongolian paper of its time, which was very brittle
and soiled. Because of the paper's weakness and overall poor
condition, it was not washed but rather surface cleaned,
repaired, and re-mended where old repairs had failed. Sutras
were written in several different languages such as Sanskrit,
Old Mongolian, Nepalese, Tibetan, Manchurian, and Chinese, and
a single sutra could have text written in several of these
languages. In fact, this sutra's text was multilingual. Though
the languages are unknown to most modern-day Mongolians, many
passages are recognisable to them, much as Biblical quotes are
to others.
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 Pages strengthened with Japanese
paper
The second sutra was approximately
350 pages in length. It was badly water stained throughout,
and required surface cleaning followed by page-by-page
washing. Four students were assigned to this laborious task,
which was made even more difficult by the lab's limited
supplies. Consequently, the pages were washed in batches by
the team, as there was only one tray available for this work.
Once washed, the pages were strengthened with Japanese paper
front and back. In some cases, pages had text on both sides,
so a transparent Japanese paper was used as a backing. Mr.
Newman demonstrated this new backing technique to the group
with the paper he had brought, and they were soon able to
apply it on their own. Within two weeks, treatment of the two
sutras was completed.
NEDCC's work in Mongolia in
September of 2001 was extremely well received and garnered
local television and newspaper coverage. As a result of this
follow-up visit to Mongolia, the NEDCC staff member gained a
more vivid understanding of the priority needs of our
colleagues. NEDCC is located in Andover, Massachusetts, USA.
Reprinted with permission. Click here
to see the original
document.
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