The inland province of Shaanxi, northwest China, has sped up its preparations for putting a 900-year-old forest of steles on the World Heritage List.

The Forest of Steles, based in the provincial capital of Xi'an,has a collection of more than 3,300 steles and grave stones built during various historical periods of China, with the earliest dating back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), said Zhao Liguang, deputy curator of the Xi'an Steles Forest Museum.

The Popular Stele of Daqin Nestorianism, which stands out for the small cross at the top, engraved in AD 781 to mark the opening of a Nestorian church. The Nestorians, an early Christian set, who were differed from orthodox Christianity in their belief that Christ's human and divine natures were quite distinct.

Other tablets include the Stone Classics of Kaicheng from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) inscribed with the thirteen Classics and historical records, totaling 650,000 Chinese characters. It is also a treasure house of Chinese calligraphy by famous calligraphers from the Hang to the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

The stele forest, dubbed the "largest stone library in China", was first built in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Zhao said.

Some of the steles recorded the introduction of religion into China and cultural and non-governmental exchanges between China and Syria, Persia, India and Japan during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

A fine stele tablet is a combination of painting, carving, calligraphy and culture, said Zhao, adding that the significance of the forest steles was that they provided precious materials for the study of fine painting, calligraphy and carving skills in ancient China and for studying the history of religion in China and ancient Sino-foreign exchanges.

The stele forest was put under state key protection in 1961.

Currently, there are 730 World Heritage sites around the world,28 of which are in China.
 
(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2004)