Mogao Grottoes

Mogao Grottoes, again known as “Thousand Buddha Caves”, are located at the cliffs of the Soughing Sand Hill some 25 kilometers to the southeast of the city of Dunhuang. The name of the grottoes is a derivation of the township named Mogao. Being the largest, the most well-known grottoes of Buddhism art in China they are caved out on the third and fourth floors,extending a length of 1.6 kilometers along the cliff. The grotto was initially dug in 366, the 2nd year under the reign of Jianyuan of the Former Qin and now in existence are 492 caves with a total of 45000 square meters of murals and 2400 colored sculptures housed in them. The sizes of the caves are varied and the sculptures are tall and short with the big ones looking robust and virile while the small icons are exquisite and delicate.

The artistic attainment is so profound and imagination so rich that set people tongue-tied when viewing them. The fresco-contents are quite rich with most of them in connection with the Buddhism, for instance, the life story of Sakyamuni and his good deeds to others by sacrificing what was of his own.. In addition, there are still a great number of Buddha-figures, Bodhisattvas, heavenly devas, tutelary deities, flying Apsaras and flowers and birds as well as other animals. Though they’ve been exposed to weathering in winds and sandstorms for over thousand years the colors of the murals are still bright with clear curve lines, that cannot help but set people acclaim for the accomplishments in are and the creative spirits of the artists in China’s ancient times. The Mogao Grottoes are the largest “World Treasure-house of Art” so far in existence in the world and so the UNESCO listed it as one of the world cultural legacies in December 1987.

The artistic feature of the Mogao Grottoes is expressed in its lively combination of the architecture, sculptures and murals. The design of caves consists of many a pattern , such as meditation cave, woshipping cave, pagoda-temple cave, archiform cave and screened cave. The sculptures comprise of regular sculpture, relief, sculptured walls and sculptures of meritorious deeds. Murals include Buddha images, episodes, Buddhism stories, historical traces and sites of Buddhism, buildings, landscape paintings, donors and supporters and animals and decorations as well. They reflect in series the various aspects of cultural exchanges between the east and the west. They cover a period of over ten dynasties since the Sixteen States, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and all the way down to Song and Western Xia and the Yuan Dynasties, thus becoming the rare cultural piece and wealth treasured by mankind of the world.