GRÜNWEDEL, Albert.

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Altbuddhistische Kultstätten in Chinesisch-Turkistan ("Ancient Buddhist Religious Sites in Chinese Turkestan"). First edition of this extensively illustrated report by the leader of the third of four German expeditions to investigate the history of the Silk Road in Xinjiang. The team, which also included Albert von Le Coq, collected 118 crates of fragments of wall paintings, manuscripts, and other archaeological material.An Indologist and Tibetologist by training, Grünwedel (1856-1935) also led the first expedition, which investigated the ancient Buddhist city of Ïdïqut Šahrī in 1902-3. German interest in the region was drawn by the spectacular discoveries made by Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Klementz in Turfan and Aurel Stein in Khotan. "The third Turfan expedition began in December 1905, when Grünwedel, following his arrival in Kashgar, began an eastward journey together with Le Coq. Following a short stopover in Tumshuq, they moved on to the west of Kucha to explore Kumtura and Kizil, where they removed murals and obtained a large amount of texts written in Sanskrit, Tocharian, Uighur and ooq returned to Germany ahead of time and the expedition, under the leadership of Grünwedel, continued farther east to Turfan. They worked at the site of Gaochang and in the Hami region until April 1907. This expedition was longer than the previous two and also went beyond Turfan, including nearly the entire length of the northern edge of the Tarim basin" (Rong, pp. 191-3).

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