Mogao Caves | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The Mogao Caves of China, 492 of which are preserved, were dug in the sandstone cliffs outside the city of Dunhuang, in today's Gansu Province, from 366 CE to the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). An oasis in a desert, where travelers on the SilkRoad stopped to resupply and to rest, Dunhuang served as a workshop for over a thousand years for Chinese and Central Asian arts to mix. As a result, some of the most brilliant artistic creations in Chinese art history, such as the Flying Apsara Musicians, were born in these caves. Of the more than two thousand colorful statues and over forty-five thousand square meters of murals, most depict Buddhist history, legends, and ways of life in China as the nation was interacting via the Silk Road with Central Asia and beyond. Today, Dunhuang is an important center for the study of Buddhism, Buddhist arts, and the Silk Road.

In 1900, a Taoist monk, Wang Yuanlu (d. 1931), discovered in a sealed cave over fifty thousand pieces of paintings and handwritten texts dated from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries. The texts were written mainly in Chinese or Tibetan, but some were also written in Sanskrit and in a half dozen other languages. Besides a large number of works on Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, the texts also contain historical records, accounting books, court records, literary works, and works on geography, astrology, medicine, mathematics, and so on. These texts, encyclopedic in their scope, provide an unusual source for the study of Chinese religions, history, literature, arts, and daily life. As part of his efforts to raise money to rebuild a nearby monastery, which he renamed Sanqinggong (the Taoist Trinity Palace), Wang sold some of his discoveries to smugglers from Britain, Japan, France, the United States, and Russia. Between 1907 and 1925, Dunhuang witnessed an exodus of some of its most valued relics, which are today still held in Britain, India, France, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Turkey, Japan, the United States, and Korea. The Museum of Dunhuang Hidden Library, located in Sanqinggong, has been open since May 2000 to tell the story of the Dunhuang treasures. The Mogao Caves are a UNESCO World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site.

Jian-Zhong Lin

Gu Weiheng, ed. (1998) Grotto Art in Dunhuang. Beijing: China Tourism Press.

Li Guishan, trans. (1998) Frescoes and Fables: Mural Stories from the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. Beijing: New World Press.

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