Digital wizardry makes broken Buddhist statues whole again

陈小将

With their heads removed and bodies broken into pieces to be sold around the world, Buddhist statues taken from sacred grottoes in North China are being made whole again, but in digital form.

The painstaking restoration work is being done with the remnants of statues located around the world, advanced digital art techniques, and a verification process involving scientists and academics from China and the United States.

Once the digital image of a statue is complete, it appears as it would have centuries ago in its original setting — the Tianlong Mountain Buddhist Grottoes in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.

"The digital restoration of cultural relics preserves an accurate historical and cultural record for future generations, allowing more endangered ancient sites to be 'revived' and take their place in the world," said Zhao Hui, dean of the College of Art at Taiyuan University of Technology, one of the institutions involved in the project.

The restoration work "brings people closer to these relics, allowing more to revisit history and rediscover the original appearance of the artifacts", said Zhao.