* University Museum and Art Gallery *

Stein at Lahore
Cat. Stein LHAS Photo 29 (28)
(Photo courtesy of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Portrait of Stein in expedition gear and felt boots during the first Central Asian Expedition
Cat. Stein LHAS Photo 3/6 (2)
(Photo courtesy of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Stein in flying suit for aerial surveys, Iraq, 8 March 1938
Cat. Stein LHAS Photo 22/2 (14)
(Photo courtesy of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Fascinated by the Orient: Life and works of Marc Aurel Stein
18 March to 4 May 2008

The Hungarian scholar Marc Aurel Stein (1862-1943) was one of the most significant explorers of the Central Asian trade routes known collectively as the Silk Road. Between them, Stein, Frenchman Paul Pelliot (1878-1945) and German Albert von Le Coq (1860-1930) defined European knowledge of Chinese Central Asia. Stein conducted three major archaeological expeditions to Chinese Central Asia between 1900 and 1916, the second of which took him to the Mogao caves of Dunhuang, where he collected paintings, sutras and other texts, as well as textiles, which form the basis of the Dunhuang collections in London and New Delhi. A significant part of his large collection of personal photographs, manuscripts, correspondences, printed and hand-drawn maps, impressions of inscriptions were bequeathed to the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

This exhibition introduces Sir Aurel Stein, the man and the scholar, with reproductions of photos, maps, letters and manuscripts from the Aurel Stein collection preserved in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and other Hungarian collections, supplemented by rare books and publications by Stein from the holdings of the University of Hong Kong Libraries and the private collection of Dr Paul Kan.

The exhibition is presented by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Hungary; jointly organized by the Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University Museum and Art Gallery of The University of Hong Kong; co-organised by the Champion Technology Group, and sponsored by A Better Tomorrow and the Chinese World Cultural Heritage Foundation. This event is part of "Liberty, Love!" Hungarian Culture in Focus, Hungarian Season in China 2007/2008.