Codicological, Palaeographic, and Textual Evidence from the British Library’s Dunhuang Manuscripts of the 80-Fascicle Flower Garland Sūtra (Śikṣānanda’s 699 Translation)

From October 2023 to May 2024, the British Library hosted WU Luchun of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, who conducted research on Dunhuang manuscripts in the Stein Collection. This research was made possible through the J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowship Programme, generously funded by the Bei Shan Tang Foundation. Luchun was supervised by Mélodie Doumy, Lead Curator of Chinese collections (Stein and Hoernle) and IDP Manager. Her project focused on a comparative analysis of Buddhist sūtras and dhāraṇīs that circulated in the Dunhuang and Wuyue regions between the ninth and eleventh centuries. During the initial months of her placement, Luchun consulted key catalogues of Dunhuang manuscripts to identify copies of the Flower Garland Sūtra in Chinese from Cave 17 within the Stein Collection. She also reviewed existing scholarship on the scripture, alongside studies on Dunhuang papers and manuscripts. Over the final months of her stay, Luchun focused on the 80-fascicle version of the Flower Garland Sūtra, translated in 699 by Śikṣānanda (652–710). She systematically gathered codicological, palaeographic, and textual data, highlighting the importance of integrating these approaches when attempting to date manuscripts. For example, a Tibetan inscription on the front of Or.8210/S.348 indicates that the manuscript was produced before circa 850. This dataset is the product of this work.