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Rebuilding history

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-30 08:23

The Acropolis in Athens, the Colosseum in Rome, the pyramids in Giza and the grottos of Dunhuang all tell the story of man's desire to preserve history, even in ruins. How best to restore the damaged structures of historical interest in Sichuan to their original forms is something reconstruction planners for the earthquake-hit areas would do well to ponder.

In Sichuan province, which was hit by the quake most severely this time, 68 sites of historical interest under the State-level protection were seriously damaged. So were 142 similar sites under the protection of provincial authorities. The major structures in the temple in memory of Li Bing and his son, who designed and supervised the construction of the famous dam Dujiangyan more than 2,000 years ago, were destroyed by the tremor.

In addition, quite a number of ancient tower buildings and villages unique to local ethnic minority groups such as Qiang, Tibetan and Hui were also severely damaged in the quake. Nearly 2,000 items of cultural relics were either broken or buried in the rubble.

Cultural relics and sites of historical interest are a vehicle that carries the cultural memories of a particular group of people and a place. People find out their cultural identity from these memories and draw spiritual strength from them.

Survivors need not only new homes for themselves but also these damaged sites of historical interest repaired and rebuilt, because these are an integral part of their lives.

Yet, the mission to repair or rebuild these sites is different from the reconstruction of new homes to accommodate the survivors.

Apart from the requirements for building ordinary housing, it is important that sites of historical heritage must be built exactly as what they were, not only in appearance but also in even the construction materials used.

Designers and construction workers must be cautious that the original structure of those sites that are only damaged should never be torn apart although a repairing work on the basis of a damaged structure may cost even more than building a new one.

For the repairs and rebuilding of cultural heritages of local ethnic minority groups, particular attention must be paid to keeping the uniqueness of their cultural characteristics.

An unthinking, casual approach to this task may lead to these parts of history being lost forever.

(China Daily 05/30/2008 page8)