A reexamination of the reasons for the closure of the Dunhuang Library Cave

Abstract

Cave 17 or the cave library is located on the northern wall in the hallway of Cave 16 in Mogao Caves, Dunhuang. The murals on the cover layer of Cave 16 are closely connected with the reason why the cave library was sealed. The transformation tableaux of the thousand Buddhas on the cover layer of Cave 16 seems to reflect the thought of the Final Dharma, which could be dated in the late Guiyijun period when Dunhuang was ruled by the Cao family. In 1052, the trend of the Final-Dharma thought flourished in the Liao Dynasty. With the frequent communications between the Guiyijun regime and the Liao, this trend came to Dunhuang and merged with the original thought of the Final Dharma in this region, which tremendously impacted the Buddhist community in Dunhuang. So the local Buddhist community made the transformation tableaux on the mural of Cave 16 and also transformed Cave 17 for storing Buddhist texts as a response to the coming Final Dharma. These activities seem to have led to the eventual sealing of Cave 17.     

洛阳新发现唐天宝三载石幢考释

2016年8月,洛阳匾额博物馆前施工时挖出一件唐代石幢的幢身,据其刻铭可知,该石幢立于唐天宝三载(744年),为彭城县尉张悌所立,其上所刻经文为《佛说业报差别经·施灯明功德品》。经考证,该石幢应为唐代佛寺灯台的幢形灯身。此外,张悌为比丘尼之"养男"的身份也为同类刻铭中少见,为研究唐人的日常生活提供了重要的实物材料。     

贵州遵义市播州杨氏土司墓葬形制研究

纵观播州杨氏土司墓葬的发展,其规模、结构、雕刻均有由繁至简的发展趋势,对昭穆制的遵循从严格走向了松散。腰坑葬俗是宋元明时期播州境内比较盛行的丧葬习俗,墓志亦是播州杨氏礼制遵循和身份等级体现的一个方面。墓前神道或拜台有自南宋中期的繁复到宋元明之交的简单到明末又归于复杂的发展轨迹,体现出时代的特征和墓葬装饰自内向外的转变。     

旅游目的地选择行为的收入群体差异——以北京、武汉、西安城镇居民为例

以北京、武汉、西安城镇居民为例,探究旅游目的地选择行为的收入群体差异。研究发现,不同收入群体的旅游目的地选择行为存在明显差异,具体表现在：①不同收入群体的景区到访率均随距离的增加呈e指数衰减,但衰减速率存在收入群体差异,收入越高的群体,到访率距离衰减速率相对越小。②中国城镇居民的国内旅游目的地选择行为具有“距离择近,景点择高,经济择富”的“三择”倾向,但不同收入群体的“三择”程度不同,收入越低的群体,“距离择近,经济择富”的倾向越明显。③不同收入群体到访率空间分异趋势一致,但高到访率空间大小不同,收入越高的群体,高到访率空间越大。④目的地亲景度存在收入群体差异,收入越高的群体,目的地亲景度越高。     

COVID-19 is expanding global consciousness and the sustainability of travel and tourism

Abstract

The sustainable development model has largely failed to address the social and environmental challenges of the 21^st century. True sustainability will only occur when it is valued as a part of the taken-for-granted daily life of individuals and cultures across the globe. This has not yet happened because humanity has not evolved a global consciousness quickly enough to match the global advances in telecommunications and transportation technologies that have created a socially and economically ever-shrinking planet. Travel and tourism contributes to the expansion of global consciousness, although only in a haphazard and unintentional manner. The COVID-19 pandemic is a result of planetary time-space compression and is forcing an expansion in human consciousness that will make humankind better able to address global problems. There will still be considerable diversity on the planet, as now, but the pandemic will stimulate growing numbers of people, businesses and governments to adopt new ways of thinking, behaving and operating that are more closely aligned with the goals of sustainable development. This could be further enhanced if travel and tourism were to adopt the expansion and awakening of global conscious as a fundamental and transformational value in the products and experiences that it offers.     

驰骋西北的平阳商帮

平阳商帮作为晋商的一支,明清两代是其发展的重要阶段,清末民初逐渐由繁盛走向衰落。平阳商帮经贸西路,其经营地点基本为丝绸之路沿线城市如西安、兰州、银川、武威、酒泉、西宁等,其经营行业涉及盐业、冶铁业、布业、烟业及茶叶等。明朝"开中法"的实施为平阳商人经贸西路拉开了序幕,丝路贸易的繁荣吸引平阳商人前去经商,"互通有无"的商业模式给平阳商人提供了商机,便利的交通亦是平阳商人经贸西路的重要条件。     

‘The white woman's burden’ – the racialized,gendered politics of volunteer tourism

Talking about race in volunteer tourism is like breaking a taboo. By critically exploring the racialized and gendered politics of volunteer tourism from the perspective of the ‘white savior complex,’ we seek to open new avenues of discussion to break this silence. We employ a postcolonial feminist theoretical framework to analyze volunteer tourism. The meanings, practices, and policies of volunteer tourism development are informed by the racialized, gendered logics of colonial thought. If older colonial logics were predominantly masculinist, it considers the largely (white) women participants in contemporary volunteer tourism as a window onto current transformations in historic racialized and gendered logics. Colonial logics and discourses have shifted over time, from the erstwhile ‘civilizing mission’ to the subsequent mandate for development to contemporary depoliticized social causes such as ‘saving the environment.’ Volunteer tourism is an exemplar of this third discourse, as global North volunteer tourists, through their depoliticized logic of ‘saving’ and ‘helping’ the less fortunate others in the global South, inherits such distinctions and reproduces them further. Given the predominance of young white women in contemporary volunteer tourism, beyond these continuities, we also point to compelling shifts in this logic from the masculinism of historic colonial processes. We also highlight the religious dimension, how Christian ideologies which were so central to formal colonial processes continue to play an important role in volunteer tourism today. Future studies on volunteer tourism need to examine its emergence, growth, and popularity (with young white women in particular) from the perspective of historic and ongoing power relations having to do with race and racialized gender, which will enable a critical conversation on volunteer tourism that adds significantly to our knowledge of contemporary neo-colonial processes and their gendered dynamics.     

Performance and visitors’ perception of authenticity in eco-cultural tourism

ABSTRACT

With the increasing commodification of cultural heritage induced by tourism development, the perception of a ‘real’ travel experience often depends on what is defined as authentic, original and local. Visitors are becoming increasingly concerned about the authenticity of eco-cultural tourism practices when they visit culturally and environmentally remote regions. The purpose of this study is to examine the role performance plays in visitors' perception of authenticity of eco-cultural tourism experiences. Various theoretical foundations and aspects of visitors' perceptions of authenticity in cultural heritage tourism are considered. A grounded theory approach based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with several categories of visitors including 25 clients from two eco-tours in South and Central Kazakhstan and 29 Free Independent Travellers (FITs) was adopted to identify visitors' perception of authenticity of various aspects of their tourism experiences and the attributes of the visitors' performative aspects of their travels. Results reveal that the performative aspects contributing to the perceived authenticity of the visitors' eco-cultural experiences are spontaneous, existential and reciprocal relationships with their hosts in intimate tourism encounters. The findings contribute to literature regarding authenticity and cultural heritage tourism by exploring new directions in which to apply the concept of authenticity in eco-cultural tourism experiences and by theorising the link between performance-based touristic space and the perception of authenticity. This space becomes a basis for interaction and social exchange within the host–guest relationship.