Mogao Caves

The Mogao Caves or Mogao Grottoes, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 492 temples 25 km southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China. The caves may also be known as the Dunhuang Caves, however, this term also include other Buddhist cave sites in the Dunhuang area, such as the Western Thousand Buddha Caves, and the Yulin Caves farther away.

This honeycomb of caves was constructed over a millennium, from the 4th to the 14th centuries, and represents the height of Buddhist art and the world's richest treasure house of Buddhist sutras, murals and sculptures. It is situated 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang city on cliffs in the eastern Singing Sand Mountains. Dating back to the Han Dynasty, the caves contain Buddhist sculpture and frescoes from ten dynasties ending with the Tang.

The art features of Mogao Grottoes, as an organic integration of architecture, sculpture and murals, systematically recorded a variety of aspects of cultural exchanges between China and the West during more than ten dynasties lasting for 1000 years from the Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan Dynasty, which has become the rare cultural treasures and wealth of the human beings.

Tang Dynasty is the heyday of Dunhuang Mogao Buddhist art. After this period, the local economy around Dunhuang declined and the production of Buddhist art lessened dramatically. In AD 366, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a monk named Yue Seng chiseled the first cave here. The endeavor continued through later dynasties, including the Northern Wei (386-534), Western Wei (535-556), Northern Zhou (557-581), Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907), Five Dynasties (907-960), Song (960-1279), Western Xia (1038-1227) and Yuan (1279-1368), resulting in the fantastic group of caves that can been seen today.

 

The traveler will note traces of Indian Buddhist art in the earlier works. More recent works depict all walks of life and activities in a local setting. You will relive the daily routines and special events as captured by the artists while you are exploring the 750 caves. There are also ups and downs in the artistic quality over the centuries, depending on the fortunes of Buddhism with available art patronage. Artists in each dynasty painted with their distinctive palette.

Thirty main caves are open to the public, and most visitors manage to visit no more than fifteen in a day. The caves are all clearly labeled with numbers above the doors. They are not lit inside, in order to preserve the murals, but guides carry flashlights and visitors should bring their own as well.

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