The Diamond Sutra, the oldest printed book in the world. Chinese characters on a rolled-up
scroll, copied by Wong Jei in 858 C.E.In this photo, taken at Dunhuang in 1907 by Aurel Stein, the secret door to the hidden cham-
ber can be seen on the right. Found a short while earlier by a Taoist priest, the chamber, con-
taining thousands of manuscripts, had been walled up 900 years earlier. Some of the
manuscripts are piled outside the door for inspection by Stein. He managed to talk the elderly
caretaker out of 13,000 manuscripts, most of them now in London or India.