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‘Glittering pearl’ on Silk Road
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THE Mogao Grottoes, or caves of the 1,000 Buddhas, are known not only as “a glittering pearl that adorns the Silk Road” but also as a crossroads linking China with the world.
The area is a network of cave temples of sculptures, murals and manuscripts 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang city in Gansu Province in northwestern China.
Dunhuang was once an oasis strategic point on the Silk Road, which served as a center for not only trade but also cultural, religious, and intellectual exchanges.
It was also a Buddhist learning center. Here Buddhist sutras and texts were translated into Mandarin, to be spread from there to other cities throughout China.
The Mogao Caves are carved out of the sandstone cliffs of Mingsha Mountain, extending about 1,600 meters north-south.
These grottoes were constructed over 1,000 years from the 4th to the 14th century, spanning more than 10 different dynasties in the process.
The area was listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO in 1987.
A golden vision
The first grotto in the Mogao Caves was built during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317-420) by a monk named Yue Zun.
Legend says Yue Zun had a vision of 1,000 golden Buddhas showering in golden rays on the cliff face as he passed by. Thus inspired, he started work on the caves, funded by a wealthy Silk Road merchant. And the work was kept on by other followers throughout the next thousand years. Each new dynasty added to the artwork of the Mogao Grottoes.
Activity peaked during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), when Buddhism was established across China.
The number of cave temples in operation during this period of time is said to have exceeded 1,000.
But with new trade routes developed in the following centuries, the importance of Dunhuang gradually declined. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the Mogao Grottoes were sealed off, abandoned, and largely forgotten by the rest of the world.
Remarkably preserved
Despite their great age, the sculptures and wall paintings in the Dunhuang caves remain remarkably well-preserved, thanks in part to the dry desert climate and their remote location.
Almost 500 of the elaborately decorated caves remain today, which contain the world’s largest collection of Buddhist art.
The decorated caves’ walls and ceilings, totaling close to 46,000 square meters, are covered by elaborate murals. There are also more than 2,000 brightly painted clay sculptures of the Buddha and other figures in the caves, with the largest sculpture being over 35 meters tall.
Murals
The murals in the Mogao Caves are remarkable for their scale and richness of content as well as their artistry. Apart from paintings depicting stories of the Buddha and sutras, the murals also portray cave donors, ornamental designs, and scenes of social and commercial life. These murals document the changing styles of Buddhist art in China for nearly 1,000 years.
Early murals showed a strong Indian and Central Asian influence in the painting techniques as well as costumes of the figure. A distinct Dunhuang style began to emerge during the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-534).
Motifs of Chinese, Central Asian and Indian origin are often seen in a single cave. Chinese elements increased afterwards.
Sculptures
Similar styles can also be found in clay sculptures in the Mogao Caves. Early figures are relatively simple, featuring Indian and Central Asian images, while figures since the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618) gradually moved on to Sinicized features and more often presented larger Buddha groups.
A 35-meter-high statue of the Maitreya Buddha in the caves, considered in some scriptures as the eventual successor to Buddha, was built in the Tang Dynasty.
It has been repaired many times over the years due to earthquakes and other issues. So, the clothing, colors and gestures of the Buddha changed along with the repairs. Only the head retains its original Early Tang appearance.
The Library Cave
The accidental discovery of the Library Cave by a Taoist priest in the 1900s helped the long-forgotten Mogao Grottoes regain the world’s interest. As a self-appointed guardian of some of the site’s cave temples, the Taoist priest discovered a cache of documents long hidden in a small sealed cave — known today as the Library Cave. The cave contained nearly 50,000 ancient manuscripts, silk banners and paintings, fine silk embroideries and other rare textiles dating from more than 1,000 years ago.
The materials found in the Library Cave offer a vivid picture of life in medieval China — accounting ledgers, contracts, medical texts, dictionaries and even descriptions of music, dance and games. However, many of the objects were soon taken from the site by explorers and archeologists from the West and Japan. The Diamond Sutra, the world’s earliest complete and dated printed book dating from about AD 886, is possibly the most notable document found.
Through carved wooden blocks, it was printed on strips of paper that were pasted together to form a scroll. It is a Chinese translation of one of the leading Sanskrit Buddhist sutras. Many of the Library Cave objects can be found online today, searchable for free through the British Library’s Dunhuang Project.
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