3D scanning and 3D printing technology have begun to play an extremely important role in preserving historical artefacts and my guess is that it won’t stop any time soon. In China, they’re using the technology for the first time to restore the Thousand Hand Bodhisattva statue from the Dazu Rock Carvings.
This golden statue is extremely old and has spent the past 800 years undergoing the ravages of the elements. The last renovation took place 100 years ago, under the Qing Dynasty, when the bodhisattva had a fresh coat of gold foil applied to its surface. Since then, the elements have continued to chip away. The most recent restoration effort began back in 2011, but now, Zhan Changfa, Director of Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage and the team at the Dazu Rock Carvings Museum have begun using 3D scanning and 3D printing to better repair the statue.
Changfa says, “We used 3D technology because it gives more precision and integrity to our work. The statue was scanned by laser, and we produced a near perfect replica of the original [with 3D printing].” The printed replica, along with a similar painting will point restorers in the right direction to completing their task. The Director adds, “The Taipei Palace Museum has a painting of the thousand-hand bodhisattva. Many of its features closely resemble what we have here, so this is a great reference for us as we go about renovating and restoring.”
Additionally, the team has performed X-ray scans of the sculpture to determine points of weakness. Masks are then applied to reinforce the bodhisattva’s overall structural integrity. Chen Huili, Deputy Director of Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, explains, “We inject special chemicals into the statue to make it more solid, but it takes time for them to sink into the deeper layers of the stone. We also have to repeat the process 7 to 8 times.”
About half of the 830 arms and 272 of the sacred objects carried by them are damaged, but the project has already managed to restore over 200 hands, giving the team hope that they’ll be complete by 2015. Further shots of the restoration process can be seen in the news clip below.
Bodhisattvas are the incarnation of Buddha that have chosen to remain in the cycle of Samsara (what regular folks call “life”) to educate others and guide them to enlightenment. As this statute is reincarnated with new technology over the decades, maybe it’ll guide one or two people to nirvana until it, too, can finally slip away.
Source: CNTV
I hope the example in China will grow beyond the borders and ancient sites like in Myanmar, in central America, or even in Egypt’s Alexandria and Jordan … will begin to see similar application employed to restore historic sites and artifacts. Great story !