Main Website: https://idp.bl.uk/ 

Directorate: British Library (London)

Founding Institutions: British Library (London); National Library of China (Beijing); The Institute of Oriental Studies (St Petersburg); Ryukoku University (Kyoto); Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschafter (Berlin); Dunhuang Academy (Dunhuang); Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris).

See the list of the Contributing Partners here*

Launch: 1994

Subject: Silk Road Studies; Silk Road documents; digitization; history of Silk Roads exploration; material and cultural history of the Silk Roads. 

Project Leader: –

Team: –

Summary:

The International Dunhuang Program, originally known as the International Dunhuang Project, is a pioneering international collaborative effort led by the British Library and founded in 1994. Its main aim is to catalogue, digitize, and conserve a vast collection of manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles, and other artifacts discovered in the Mogao Cave (cave no. 17) of Dunhuang, as well as related Silk Road sites. By bringing together partner institutions from around the world, the program makes these collections freely accessible online, allowing researchers, students, and the public to explore and study them without endangering the fragile originals.

Over the years, the program has also organized numerous research projects, exhibitions, and educational initiatives that highlight the cultural and historical significance of the Silk Roads. The first director, Susan Whitfield, a leading scholar in the field, guided the program until her retirement in 2017.

With its founding institutions based in London, St Petersburg, Beijing, Paris, Berlin, Dunhuang, the International Dunhuang Program continues to be an essential resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the shared cultural heritage of the Silk Roads and the history of exchange across Asia.

Thanks to the search engine on the IDP website it is possible to search among thousands of manuscripts, photographs and documents. 

You can also explore various collections based on the archaeological site, material, collection, and institution, by following the link here.

Besides exploring the collections, you can also check the IDP blog, which has numerous interesting posts that help us understand the history of the collections, the ongoing research on them and other related topics. For example, you can check this post by Michael Erdman on the Old Turkic omen-book known as Irk Bitig, or learn about the scribal practices in Dunhuang in this post by Sam van Schaik.