The Mogao Grottos lie 25 kilometers to the southeast of Dunhuang County, Gansu Province.
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The Mogao Grottos, commonly called One-Thousand Cave, were sculpted and chiseled on the cliffs at the east foot of Mingsha Mountain, and are five-tiered and about 1,600 meters long. According to historical records, in the second year of the Jianyuan reign, the pre-Qin Dynasty, a shaman named Le Zun once traveled to this mountain when he suddenly saw the shining golden rays, as if there were one thousand Buddha, thereafter he began to chisel the first cave in the cliff. After that, through the continuous chiseling and sculpting in many dynasties such as the Sixteen States (304-439), the Northern Wei (386-534), the Western Wei (535-557), the Northern Zhou (557-581), Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907), Five Dynasties (907-906), Song (960-1279), the Western Xia (1038-1227), Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties and so on, it has gradually developed into a rich and grand group of grottos. Till now, there are 492 extant caves, 45,000 square meters of frescoes, 2,415 colored sculptures, and 5 wooden eaves made in the Tang and Song dynasties, and thousands of lotus poles and colorful paving tiles. It is the most grand and best-preserved treasure house of the Buddhism art not only in China but also in the world.
The forms of the grottos include Buddhist caves, Central Pole caves, Square Hall caves and Fudoushi (Reversed Dipper caves), among which the highest is more than 40 meters high, and covers an area of 30 square meters, while the smallest is no more than one chi(1 chi=0.33 meter). All the statues are colored clay sculptures, including two kinds, a single statue or a group of statues. In the middle sit the statue of Buddha, the disciples, Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings and Hercules stand on its side, 11 statues at most and 3 statues at least. The statues are so exquisitely sculpted that really true to life, and each of them has different posture and expression. The consummate artistic achievements and the abundant imagination are hailed as the acme of perfection.
The expressions of the Buddhist ideas are the main contents of the magnificent and gorgeous frescoes inside the grottos, such as the story paintings of the nature and biographies of the Buddha in the early stages, and the paintings of expounding scriptures through pictures and historical relics of the Buddhism in the middle and later stages. The ancient artists made vivid expression of the classical contents of the Buddhism in the frescoes, meanwhile alternated with some descriptions of the production activities and social lives of the ancient time, such as hunting, farming, spinning and weaving, traffic, fighting, houses and architectures, music and dancing, marriage and funeral, etc. The images of different kinds of figures and providers contain a large amount of useful information of the hat and clothes, garments and accessories worn by the peoples in the past dynasties. Moreover, the descriptions of many pavilions, towers, pagodas, palaces, yards, cities, bridges and the extant five wooden eaves of the Tang and Song dynasties, in the paintings of story and expounding scriptures through pictures that are drawn in the past dynasties, are all the precious visual samples and material objects for the research into the ancient Chinese architecture. China has a long history of several thousand years in sculpture and painting. However, almost all the works of many famous artists and statuaries in the history of art, such as Gu Kaizhi of the Jin Dynasty, Yan Liben and Wu Daozi of the Tang Dynasty, have been lost. The outstanding traditions of the Chinese national art was inherited and even reappeared in the Dunhuang art to some extent, which provides useful materials for our study today. Meanwhile, it has assimilated the essence of many foreign arts, and made a ood combination of the Chinese and Western, to create the splendid and glorious art. The large number of frescoes and colored sculptures preserved till now has provided abundant materials for the research into the history of Chinese art.
On May 26, the 26thyear (1900) of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, a Taoist named Wang Yuanlu, happened to find a Cave of Buddhist Scriptures in the No.17 Grotto today, where about 50,000 or 60,000 cultural relics of the past dynasties from the 4thto 14thcentury were stored there. It is really a significant discovery in the Chinese archaeology in the early 20thcentury. Among them, there are many hand-written copies not only in Chinese, but also in Tibetan language, Sanskrit, ancient Uygur language and so on, which account for one sixth of the total, and also several artworks including silk scrolls of paintings, and embroideries, etc. Besides many sutras, Taoist scriptures and Confucian canons, there are also different kinds of documents including historical records, account books, almanacs, written agreements, letters, official documents, which are of great historic and scientific importance for the research into the ancient China's politics, onomy, culture, military and friendly communication between China and foreign countries. Unfortunately, due to the corrupt and impotent governments after the later Qing dynasties, many of the treasures of the Mogao Grottos were plundered by heinous thieves like Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot, Langdon Warner and Albert von Le Coq, mainly by theft but also through unfair transactions from 1907 to 1925. Stein once robbed 29 big boxes of hand-written copies and cultural relics. In 1943, the Research Institute of Dunhuang Art was established, to repair, take care of and study the precious cultural relics. In 1950, it was renamed as the Research Institute of the Cultural Relics in Dunhuang, which was responsible for the complete repair of the grottos. From 1963 to 1966, about 400 caves were reinforced to guarantee the safety of them.
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