Mogao Caves

The Mogao Caves, the most prominent cave complex among the grottoes in Dunhuang, are located on the cliffs at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain in the southeast of Dun- huang, Gansu Province. It is 1,680 meters long from north to south, 50 meters high, and contains over 700 cells, making it the world's largest and most culturally significant Buddhist grottoes.

The Mogao Caves, first constructed in A.D. 366 during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), were expanded over the course of about 1,000 years. These caves represent an art form that combines architecture, sculpture, and mural painting, show- casing the evolvement of Chinese grotto art, which blends the artistic traditions of the Han and Jin dynasties with those of the Northern and Southern dynasties (420-589) and the Tang (618-907) and Song (907-1279) dynasties together with im- ported and transformed artistic styles from India, Central Asia, and West Asia. The Dunhuang murals, painted with exquisite techniques and covering a wide range of themes, vividly depict various aspects of the ancient Chinese society, such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, rituals of marriage and burial, and trade and cultural exchanges along the ancient Silk Road, preserving valuable information for later generations. In mod- ern times, a library cave was discovered at the cave complex, which contains over 50,000 cultural artefacts such as Buddhist sutras, documents, works of embroidery, silk paintings, and ritual implements dating back to the 4th to 11th century. It became known as the "Encyclo- pedia of Medieval China". The rich meanings and unmatched value of the Dunhuang grottoes have drawn the attention of scholars around the world, and Dunhuang has emerged as an academic focus area.

The Mogao Caves are not only a treasure trove of ancient Chinese civilization but also an important testament to the exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations along the ancient Silk Road. The evolvement of these caves over the thousand years was directly related to such factors as religious practices, language and writing, literature and art, history, geography, technology, economic development, and ethnicity. They record exchanges across the Eurasian continent and the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia. In 1987, the Mogao Caves were included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.