»Turfan Studies«, German »Turfanforschung« is the scientific edition and interpretation of works of art and textual remains that were found in the Turfan oasis and neighbouring sites in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and that bear manifold witness to the cultures of the ancient Silk Road. The study of the texts is the responsibility of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. In the year 2002 the Berlin Academy together with the Museum of Indian Art and the State Library Berlin, both of which are part of the Prussian Cultural Heritage, will celebrate the centenary of the start of the first German Turfan Expedition, of which there were four in all. These expeditions resulted in the greatest part of the treasures from Turfan being brought to Berlin. The fact that a hundred years after the arrival in Berlin of the first documents from Turfan a large part of the philological work on the texts still remains to be done is due to the character of the collection, the initially unknown nature of many of the languages found therein, the unfamiliarity of many words, and the bad state of preservation of the texts. The scientific gain from work on them for Oriental Studies, the study of Comparative Religions, of Literature and Linguistics has been and is all the greater. [...more]