The main attraction for visitors to the area around Dunhuang are undoubtedly the unique treasures found in the Mogao Ku caves, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas (Qianfo Dong). Mogao is a small town 25km/15.5mi southeast of Dunhuang. The caves are a very important center of Buddhist art and give an insight into the political and economic life of the times during which they were constructed. The first grotto was hewn out of the rock by the monk Lezun in the year 366. As Buddhism spread so did the number of such caves, so that over a span of some 1000 years diggings were made into a wall of sandstone measuring 1600m/1mi in length; by the Tang period (618-907) a thousand meters (eleven hundred yards) had been excavated in this way. In the Ming period (1368-1644) the caves gradually became forgotten. It was not until 1949 that the Chinese government made efforts to preserve this unique cultural site and set up a research institute for this purpose.
In 1987 UNESCO included the caves in their list of the World's Cultural Heritage Sites.
492 mainly square or rectangular caves, with 2415 statues in colored clay, 45,000sq.m/484,000sq.ft of wall-paintings and five wooden buildings have survived the ravages of time, but the remaining caves have been destroyed by the effects of weather. The largest grotto is 40m/130ft high and 30m/100ft wide and deep, while the smallest is less than 1m/3ft4in. high. Each cave has a plaque showing its official number, date of construction and dynasty. The sculptures are all of painted clay, the largest being 33m/108ft and the smallest just 10cm/4in. They are of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, holy men, youths and Buddhist believers. The wall-paintings cover all kinds of subjects - Buddhist characters, episodes from the Sutras, the teachings of Buddha, legends, fairy tales, everyday scenes, floral patterns and geometric decoration.
It was not until the year 1900 that a monk named Wang Yuanlu found in Cave No. 16 an enormous treasure of inestimable value, consisting of 40,000 scrolls with Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian writings as well as silk-paintings, embroidery and bronze statuettes, dating from the 4th to the 11th C. They had probably been hidden there by the monks in 1035 when a hostile army approached. The monks fled, never to return, so that the treasure was forgotten. Wang reported his find to the authorities who, however, did nothing. Eventually, he sold the largest and most valuable part of the treasure to British, French and Japanese explorers.
Read More
Read Less
Read More
Read Less
Exterior of Mogao Caves.
