Archaeologists use computers to piece vandalized Buddhist cave temple back together

The Buddhist cave tabernacle of Xiangtangshan were damage over the centuries by keepsake - seekers , but researchers at the University of Chicago and Peking University have managed to reconstruct the cave ’s fractured sculptures digitally . catch them do so in this TV .

Here ’s a short history of the temple caves . The “ Echoes of the past times ” exhibit runs until July 31 atThe Smithsonian ’s museum of Asian Art :

Carved into the spate of northern China , the Buddhistic cave temple of Xiangtangshan ( 響堂山 , pronounced “ shahng - tahng - Ben Shahn ” ) were the coronate cultural achievement of the Northern Qi dynasty ( 550–77 CE ) . Once home to a magnificent array of carving - massive Buddhas , godly attendant figure , and crouching monsters draw up by floral motif - the limestone cave were severely damaged in the first half of the twentieth hundred , when their contents were chisel aside and offered for sale on the outside artistry market