“Mogao Caves, located in a stronghold of the Silk Road, served not only a hub for trade between the east and the west, but also a place for confluence of religion, culture and knowledge. Mogao Caves are renowned for its 492 small grottos and cave temples, as well as statuaries and frescos, which shows the Buddhism art passed down through thousands of years.” World Heritage Committee (WHC) made the above comments when Mogao Caves at Dunhuang were included in the World Heritage List in 1987.
Mogao Caves, also called as Thousand-Buddha Cave, are located at the east foot of the Singing Sands Mountain, 25 kilometers away from the southeast of the city of Dunhuang in Gansu province. In the escarpment as long as more than 1600 meters from the south to the north, there are five levels of caves, with the tiptop as high as 50 meters. Mogao Caves are of grand scale, rich contents and profound history, with 492 caves, more than 45,000 square meters frescos, and 2415 colored sculptures existing at present. Among them, the biggest statuary is 34.5 meters high, and the largest fresco is in around 50 square meters.
The creation of Mogao Caves was started since the 2nd year of Jianyuan(during the reign of Xuanzhao Emperor) in the Former Qin Dynasty (A.D. 366) and was basically completed in the Yuan Dynasty (A.D.1271 – 1368), which was a continuous work through nearly a thousand year and enabled Mogao Caves to become a Buddhism art treasury converging multiple art forms, such as architecture, fresco, colored sculpture and rock carving, from various dynasties. The art of architecture is mainly embodied in diversified forms of grottoes, such as meditation grotto, palace grotto, temple and tower grotto, grotto with arched roof and shadow grotto, which reflects the integration and development of various cultures. The art of fresco, as the most essential part of Mogao Caves, presents a visualizable and luxuriant history of cultures, and wins the reputation as a “library on walls”. The art of painted sculpture is mainly embodied by the sculptures of Buddha, Bodhisattva, disciples and heavenly deities, which are mainly created in forms of round plastic, floating plastic, film plastic, with styles ever-changing with times, and is called as “image history museum”.
In 1900, the cave for preserving Buddhist sutras was discovered accidentally in Mogao Caves, which unpacked nearly 60,000 pieces of precious cultural relics preserved in the cave and presented them to the world. Those cultural relics include sutras, documents, knitting and embroideries and portraits from Wei and Jin Dynasties of Three Kingdoms to the Northern Song Dynasty. Besides being written in Chinese, there are still one-sixth documents written in other nationalities’ languages including Sogdian, Kharosthi, Uighur script, ancient Tibetan, Sanskrit and Tibetan, which is extremely significant for the addendum and emendation of the documents from ancient China. This important discovery that astonished the world gave a birth to the well-known Studies of Dunhuang Caves that has become an internationally famous school.
The Mogao Caves extant Northern Wei Dynasty to Yuan cavern 735, divides into the north and south two areas.South the area is Mogao Caves' main body, is engaged in the religious activities for the clergy the place, some 487 caverns, have the mural or make an idol.North the area has 248 caverns, in which only then 5 existence murals or makes an idol,But after other all is the clergy leads a pious life the place which, the housing and the death buries, has life facilities and so on the adobe bed, stove kang, flue, niche, desk lamp.Two area total 492 cavern existence mural and makes an idol, has the mural 45,000 square meter, the argillaceous painted sculpture 2415, Tang Songmu constructs cliff eave 5, as well as several thousand lotus flower pillars, spread out on the floor the decorative brick and so on.
Mogao Caves not only reflects the religions and social life in ancient China, but also shows the outstanding wisdom and remarkable achievements of ancient people in various dynasties, opening an excellent window for us to look into the world of our forefathers.
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