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Dunhuang Travel Tips
Dunhuang Cuisine
Dunhuang Attractions
Culture in Dunhuang
Hot in Dunhuang |
Dunhuang lies at the western end of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province in
Northwest China, an oasis on the eastern edge of Takli- makan Desert. It is
nourished by melted snow water from the Qilian Mountains. The ancient town used
to be an important stop-over point on the Silk Road. The name "Dunhuang" was
given in the Han Dynasty.
In Chinese "Dun" means grandness and " Huang" means
prosperity. In the 2nd century B.C. Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty sent
imperial envoy Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, opening up a trade route which
was to be known as the "Silk Road" in history.The imperial court set up Dunhuang
Prefecture in A.D. 111 and Dunhuang became a strategic town. Through this route
Chinese culture and products, especially silk, were introduced to European and
Middle East coun tries, and foreign culture and products such as Buddhism of
India came to central China. Much of Buddhism is propagated through artistic
forms, which were soon assimilated into the Chinese traditional culture. The
result was that many Buddhist images were carved in caves in mountain cliffs
along the Silk Road. Many of them have been well preserved. The best are those
at Mogao in Dunhuang. The Dunhuang Grotto Art is composed of the Cave and Yulin
Grottos in Anxi. Carving of the Mogao Grottos, commonly known as 1, 000- Buddha
Caves, began in AD 366 and continued through a dozen dynasties including the
Northern Liang , Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang,
Five-Dynasties Period, Song, Huihe, Western Xia and Yuan. The extant 492 caves
preserve more than 2, 000 color statues and 45,000 square meters of murals. The
mural themes depict Buddha portraits, stories and interpretations of Buddhist
scriptures, Buddhist history, legends, portraits of devotees and various
decorative patterns.
 They
describe different ethnic groups, people's lives such as nobles' outings,
singing, dancing and music, farming, fishing and hunting, acrobatics and martial
art practice, foreign envoys and merchants on the Silk Road. Some scholars liken
these murals to a "library on the wall, " In the early 20th century some 50,000
pieces of cultural relics were found in the Scripture-Keeping Cave including
handwritten documents and more than 1,000 pieces of silk painting, graphic
painting , embroidery and calligraphy. Put together the art works would form a
25-kilometer-long art gallery. The Mogao Grottos were dug in loose sedimentary
conglomerate of the the Quaternary Period. Some parts collapsed in earthquakes.
But the dry weather has preserved the basic outlook of the cliffs. In the 1940s
the Dunhuang Art Research Institute was established at Mogao. After the founding
of the People's Republic of China, the new government began an overall repair
and reinforcement project on 39 caves, saving 1,800 square meters of murals and
200 color statues. The Western 1,000-Buddha Cave and Yulin Grottos at Anxi have
been public after renovation. Grottos in Dunhuang are a national treasure of
China and a cultural heritage of the world. In 1962 the State Council put them
among China's first key cultural relics under state protection and in 1991 the
UNESCO put them on its list of world natural and cultural heritages. This album
includes the best works representing different historical periods with brief
introductions.
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