DUNHUANG, China — In the cool shadows of Cave 98, Li Lingzhi watched as workers in blue suits inspected the Buddhist frescoes commissioned in this Gobi Desert cliff grotto more than a millennium ago by a local ruling family.
中国敦煌——李凌志（音译）站在98号窟阴凉的暗处，看着身穿蓝色工装的工作人员查看洞窟里的佛教壁画，这些在戈壁滩崖洞里的壁画，是1000多年前由一个统治当地的家族出资创制。
It has taken a decade to restore the cave. Metal scaffolding still surrounds the central statue, a three-story seated Buddha with orange robes.
修复这个洞窟前后花了十年时间。洞窟中心是一座三层楼高、身披橘色袈裟的坐佛，佛像周围还立着金属脚手架。

“We’re waiting for an expert to inspect this, and then we will discuss when we can open it to the public,” said Mr. Li, who works on conservation for the Dunhuang Research Academy, which has managed the Mogao Caves for the central government since 1944, even before the Communists took power. “We’re monitoring humidity and temperature now in this cave.”
“我们正在等待一位专家来检查这座佛像的修复情况，然后再讨论何时可以向公众开放，”李凌志说到，他在敦煌研究院负责文物保护工作。该院自1944年就开始为中央政府管理莫高窟，当时中国共产党还没有掌权。“我们正在监测这个洞窟现在的湿度和温度，”李凌志説。
Such is the delicate work that goes into preserving these small, centuries-old caves, with nearly 500 of them providing a time capsule of art along the Silk Road and ranking among the world’s greatest Buddhist treasures.
保护这些有成百上千年历史的小洞窟，正需要这样细致入微的工作，沿着昔日的丝绸之路分布着五百多座洞窟，它们是穿越时间的艺术，是世界上最重要的佛教宝藏之一。
There are statues and figurines and frescoes of Buddha with curly hair and sharp noses, a style common in ancient Central Asian art; Tibetan-style bodhisattvas with a thousand arms drawn in the time of Mongol rule; and disciples wearing Indian dhotis. Most of the caves with art were paid for by royal families seeking a place for private worship. The oldest one dates back 1,600 years.
洞窟中的雕塑和壁画描绘的佛陀有卷曲的头发和笔挺的鼻子，这种形象在古代中亚艺术中比较常见；蒙古统治时期绘制的藏式千手观音；身着印度传统服饰托蒂(dhotis)的佛教徒。大部分存有艺术创作的洞窟都是由当时的王族出资建造，作为私人的礼佛之地。最古老的洞窟可以追溯到1600年前。
The caves marked the western frontier of Chinese empires and the eastern one of Central Asian kingdoms. Camel caravans crossed the Hexi Corridor here laden with spices, silks and scriptures, some of which were deposited in the famous library cave that drew the explorers Sir Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot in the early 20th century. An entire school of scholarship called “Dunhuang Studies” has sprung up in the decades since, and the area has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.
这些洞窟曾处在历代中华帝国疆土和西方的中亚王国接壤的地方。当时穿梭于河西走廊的骆驼满载着香料、丝绸、经卷，有些经卷原先保存于著名的藏经洞里，正是这个洞窟吸引探险家奥雷尔·斯坦因爵士(Sir Aurel Stein)和保罗·伯希和(Paul Pelliot)在20世纪初来到敦煌。一大批被统称为“敦煌学”的学术研究在之后几十年陆续涌现。这个地区也被联合国列入世界遗产名录。
But the modern era’s threats to the art have been legion: sandstorms, rainwater, local tomb raiders, plundering foreign archaeologists (Messrs. Stein and Pelliot among them), and White Russian soldiers who once lived in the grottoes.
但到了近现代，这些艺术品却遭遇来自多方面的威胁：沙尘暴、雨水、当地盗墓者和前来捋掠的国外考古学家（包括斯坦因和伯希和），以及曾经住在这些洞窟里的白俄罗斯士兵。
Scholars and preservationists now warn of an even greater looming threat: tourist hordes, even beyond the thousands of daily visitors who flood the area between May and October.
如今，学者和文物保护者担心一个更为严重、日益突出的威胁：成群结队的游客，这远不止五月到十月间令这里人满为患的成千上万名游客。
Officials in Gansu Province, which includes Dunhuang, and a company in Beijing have drawn up plans for a sprawling theme park connecting the caves with a separate area of sand dunes that already exists as a tourist playground (think dune buggies and camel rides). The connecting strip of desert would be filled with faux temples, folk villages and souvenir stands.
敦煌所在的甘肃省政府和一家北京公司已经在规划建设一个巨大的主题公园，将敦煌石窟和另一片沙丘连起来，那里已经是一个观光乐园（提供沙漠越野车和骆驼骑行之类的项目）。中间相连的狭长沙漠地带将会建起假寺庙、民俗村和纪念品商店。
“We hope it won’t become reality,” said Fan Jinshi, 76, known as the “Daughter of Dunhuang,” who has worked at the academy since 1963 and directed it for 17 years, until March. “The Mogao Caves are irreplaceable and nonrenewable. Not only do the caves have to be respected, but the atmosphere around them must be protected, too. The atmosphere around them is part of their integrity.”
“我希望它不要变成现实，”76岁的樊锦诗说到，她被称为“敦煌的女儿”，自1963年就开始在敦煌研究院工作，担任该院院长17年，直到今年三月退休。“莫高窟无可替代，一旦破坏也不可恢复。我们不仅要保护洞窟本身，还要保护其周边环境。周边环境也是这个整体的一部分。”
He Shuzhong, founder of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, a nonprofit preservation group, expressed his concerns in an essay in the March issue of World Heritage Magazine, a publication of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
非盈利保护机构北京文化遗产保护中心发起人何戍中今年三月在中国外交部主管的《世界遗产》杂志发表了一篇文章，也表达了这方面的担忧。
“For 20 years, the city has never stopped trying to exploit the caves for money,” Mr. He said in an interview. “The plan would destroy the environment of the caves.”
“过去20年，这个城市一直在利用洞窟敛财，”何戍中在一次接受采访时说到。“这个项目会毁掉洞窟的环境。”
The plan, requested by Gansu officials, was completed last October by the Boya Strategy Consultation Group, a Beijing-based company that develops commercial tourism sites across China. The proposal has circulated among Gansu officials and the Dunhuang Research Academy, but it has not been publicly released.
应甘肃省官员的要求，在全国参与多个商业旅游景区开发的博雅方略咨询集团已经在去年十月完成了这个项目的策划。这份策划书已经在甘肃官员手上和敦煌研究院里传阅，但还没有对外公布。
In the plan, Boya designers list various shortcomings in the area around the Mogao Caves, including a lack of hotels, live entertainment, large shopping areas and bus parking lots, according to a copy obtained by The New York Times.
《纽约时报》获得的一份策划书复印件显示，博雅公司在其中列举了在莫高窟周边建景区的各种弊端，包括缺少配套酒店、娱乐设施、大型购物区和大巴停车场。
The plan proposes building a trailer park and campground complete with a drive-in movie theater, a vineyard and wine cellar, and a “Silk Road Village” between the caves and the sand dunes with hotels, shopping malls, museums, performance halls, restaurants, bars and movie theaters.
策划书建议在周边建立旅行拖车公园、带汽车影院的露营地、一个葡萄园和酒窖，以及在沙丘和洞窟之间建一个有配套酒店、购物中心、博物馆、表演场所、餐厅、酒吧和影院的“丝绸之路村”。
Its authors give generous estimates of potential income. By 2017, it says, the main tourism zone will attract more than 2.13 million tourists a year, with revenue of 496 million renminbi, or $80 million. By 2020, the revenue will grow to $123 million.
据策划者估算，这个商业项目的潜在收入将非常可观。策划书中写道，2017年主旅游区每年将会吸引213万游客，创造4.96亿人民币（或8000万美元）的营收。至2020年，收入将增至1.23亿美元。
“The concept of the tourism zone was suggested by the provincial government after it established a tourism industry leading group,” said Dou Wenzhang, a Peking University business scholar who founded Boya. “The goal is to establish 20 of these zones across Gansu Province.”
“这个旅游区的概念是省政府在成立了一个旅游产业领导小组之后提出的，目标是在甘肃省内建起20个这样的景区，”博雅方略创始人、北京大学经济学者窦文章说到。
Jiang Jianhong, director of daily operations at the Dunhuang City Tourism Bureau, said, “There is no timeline as to when construction will start on the tourism zone.” He added, “Protection of the caves is of the highest importance.”
敦煌市旅游局姜建宏表示，“对于何时开始建设这个旅游区，我们还没有具体的时间表。”他还说，“洞窟的保护是最重要的。”
Perhaps most worrying to the Dunhuang Research Academy, the plan calls for the creation of a provincial government commission to oversee tourism, potentially stripping the academy of some or all of its authority. Mr. Dou argued that the academy would retain much of its power and that its rules on tourism would be respected.
最让敦煌研究院担心的恐怕是，该计划需要省政府建立专门委员会来监督旅游业发展，这可能会部分削弱或完全剥夺研究院的权力。窦文章认为政府会保留研究院的很多权力，他们对景区旅游的管理权也会得到尊重。
In the eyes of Ms. Fan and her colleagues, the imperatives of preservation must be placed well above tourism. Already, the number of tourists generates anxiety at the academy. After 1979, when the caves were opened to the public, 10,000 to 20,000 people visited annually. In recent years, the crowds have sometimes reached that number in a single day in the peak season, with a total of 810,000 last year.
在樊锦诗和她的同事看来，文物保护的重要性一定要高于旅游开发。单是大量游客到来已经让他们倍感焦虑。1979年敦煌莫高窟对外开放后，每年有一两万人到访。最近几年，旅游旺季一天的游客人数就能达到这个量，去年的游客总数已经达到81万。
Ms. Fan and her colleagues worked for years on a plan to control tourism that is just now taking effect. The academy built a new visitors’ center about 10 miles north of the caves. People park there and are required to watch two 20-minute films about the caves before taking shuttle buses to the site. There, guides lead groups of 25 people in tours of one to two hours through about eight caves, with a limit of 6,000 visitors a day.
樊锦诗和同事们为一项控制游客数量的计划努力了多年，最近刚刚开始实施。研究院在洞窟北面10英里（约合16公里）处新建了一座游客中心。游客在那里换乘班车前往景区之前，需要观看两段时长20分钟的有关洞窟的影像资料。景区日接待游客总量控制在6000人内，旅游向导每次带25人入窟，一两小时内观看完八个洞窟。
One of the films, in 3-D, is projected on the inside of a dome that brings the viewer into six caves, including one with an 85-foot-high sitting Buddha.
其中一段是3D影像，在一个穹顶结构墙面上放映，可以让游客立体观看六座洞窟内的景象，其中一个洞窟里有一座高达85英尺（约合26米）的坐佛像。
“The point is to have people look at the art but without going into the caves,” Ms. Fan said. “This is the first place in all of China to experiment with this method.”
“这样做的目的是让游客不必进入洞窟就可以观赏洞窟艺术，”樊锦诗说到。“这里是全中国第一个尝试用这种方法的地方。”
About 80 percent of the caves are less than 85 square feet and cannot accommodate many visitors, yet 1,187 people bought tickets for the tour one recent day.
80%的洞窟面积不到85平英尺（约合8平方米），无法容纳太多游客，而最近一天就有1187人购买了门票。
Their mere presence can be harmful, raising the temperature and levels of carbon dioxide and humidity. Sensors in the caves send readings to the academy’s control rooms. If those exceed recommended levels, the academy temporarily closes the cave.
这些人哪怕什么也不做，只是出现在洞窟里，也会带来危害，他们会增加窟内温度、二氧化碳浓度和湿度。窟内安装的感应器会向研究院的控制室发送检测数据。如果数据超过了一定范围，研究院就会暂时关闭洞窟。
“If there are too many tourists, the already existing conditions will worsen,” Ms. Fan said. “If you develop just the tourism industry and sacrifice cultural relics protection, the profit will run out quickly.”
“游客数量过多，情况会比现在的更糟，”樊锦诗说到。“如果只追求旅游开发，而牺牲文物保护，这种利润很快就会耗尽。”