Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes is the general name of Mogao Grottoes and West Thousand Buddha Caves in Dunhuang City, Gansu Province. The Dunhuang Grottoes, along with the Yungang Grottoes in Datong in Shanxi and the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang in Henan, are the three major grottoes in China. Mogao Grottoes are located in the western end of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province, southeast of Dunhuang City, southeast of Mingsha Mountain, and west bank of the eastern foothills of Mingsha Mountain, founded in the second year of the former Qin Dynasty (366), so far preserving the Northern Liang, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties, Song, Western Xia, Yuan Dynasty for more than 1,000 years of various types of caves, more than 700 murals, more than 45,000 square meters of color sculptures, more than 2,000 wooden structures, five eaves of caves. In 1900, more than 40,000 ancient documents of various types were found in the Tibetan scripture cave. Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes is a treasure trove of culture and art that integrates construction, color sculpture and murals. Its content involves the fields of art, history, economy and culture, religion, ethnicity, science and technology of ancient society, has precious historical, artistic and scientific value, and is an artistic treasure of the Chinese nation and an excellent cultural heritage of mankind.
1. The location of the Mogao Grottoes
Located 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, Gansu Province, on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain, Mogao Grottoes are located on the cliffs at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain, in addition to the Mogao Grottoes, there are West Thousand Buddha Caves, Yulin Grottoes and East Thousand Buddha Caves, etc., which together form the Dunhuang Grottoes group, of which the West Thousand Buddha Caves and the East Thousand Buddha Caves are often regarded as branches of Mogao Grottoes and Yulin Grottoes. West Thousand Buddha Cave is located on the western border of Dunhuang City, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province (National Highway 215 near Danghe Reservoir). Yulin Grottoes is located 47 kilometers southeast of the Monument to the Mushroom Taiwan Military Conference of the Hongxi Road Army in Guazhou County, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province. East Thousand Buddha Cave is located in Qiaozi Township, Guazhou County, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province.
There are 735 existing caves in Mogao Grottoes, distributed on cliffs with a total length of more than 1,700 meters, divided into north and south areas. The protection area of Mogao Grottoes is divided into key protected areas (1,423 hectares), general protected areas (21,969 hectares), and construction control zones (21,230 hectares). In addition, environmental control areas (85,046 hectares) have been designated on the periphery of protected areas and construction control zones. Among them, the Mogao Grottoes Key Conservation Area: bounded by the east bank of the Daquan River in the east; 500 meters south from Chengcheng Bay; The grotto cliffs extend 2,000 meters to the west; North to the provincial highway 217 line 11,000 meters milestone. General protected area: east to the western foothills of the Three Dangers Mountains; South to the entire Daquan River Basin, including Daquan, Tiaohuzi, Da Lapai, Xiaolapai, Kugou Spring and other waters; 2,000 meters west to the Mingsha Mountain watershed; It reaches the 1,000-meter milestone of Provincial Highway 217 in the north and extends 3,500 meters to the east and west sides from the center of the highway.
2. History of the Mogao Grottoes
The Mogao Grottoes were built in the Sixteen Kingdoms period, and according to the Tang "Li Kerang Rebuilt the Mogao Grottoes Buddha Shrine Stele", in the second year of the former Qin Dynasty (366), the monk Le Xu passed by this mountain and suddenly saw golden light shining, like ten thousand Buddhas, so he dug the first cave on the rock wall. After that, Fa Liang Zen Master and others continued to build caves here to practice meditation. During the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties, the rulers believed in Buddhism, and the construction of caves was supported by princes and nobles, and developed rapidly. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the prosperity of the Silk Road, the Mogao Grottoes were even more prosperous, and there were more than a thousand caves during Wu Zetian's time. After the Anshi Rebellion, Dunhuang was occupied by Tubo and then by the rebel army, but the statue-making activities were not greatly affected. The development of the Mogao Grottoes in the Uighur period reached its peak, and the famous or clear and complete portraits and Buddhist carvings seen today were basically restored and newly built during this period. During the Northern Song, Western Xia and Yuan dynasties, the Mogao Grottoes gradually declined, and only the caves of the former dynasty were mainly rebuilt, and very few new ones were built. Yuan stopped opening caves later.
3. View of Mogao Grottoes
Landscape distribution of Mogao Grottoes
The Mogao Grottoes are the world's largest and best-preserved treasure trove of Buddhist art. Dunhuang has been an important town on the Silk Road since ancient times, and it was once quite prosperous, and there were many cave temples around. The scenery of Mogao Grottoes Scenic Area is distributed among caves 112, 130, Dunhuang Academy History Exhibition Hall, the second exhibition room of Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute, nine floors, ancient tower, Ci's Pagoda, stone chamber treasure, Mogao Grottoes small archway, merit list, big archway, old gentleman's cemetery, Dunhuang Grottoes Cultural Relics Protection Research and Exhibition Center, Wang Daoshi Pagoda, Mogao Villa, Sanqing Palace, Zangjing Cave, National Engineering Technology Research Center for Mural Painting Protection in the National Dynasty, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Scenic Area, Dunhuang Academy Digital Center, Dunhuang Academy Fine Arts Research Institute, Dunhuang Academy of Peking University, Silk Road and Dunhuang Research Center, Mogao Grottoes Calligraphy and Painting Art Archive, Wang Yuanlu Pagoda, Mr. Li Qiqiong Memorial Exhibition, See also Dunhuang Theater, Dunhuang Zangjing Cave Exhibition Hall, Grape Gallery, Mogao Flower Sea Farmer's Homestead, Cave 428, Cave 148, West Thousand Buddha Cave, Danghe Grand Canyon, Black Cliff Terrace, etc.
The main attraction of the Mogao Grottoes
(1) Mogao Grottoes nine floors
The nine-story Mogao Grottoes is the common name of the wooden structure outside Cave 96, and it is called the Beida Statue in the Tang Dynasty, also known as the Great Buddha Hall. The nine-story building is the symbol of the Dunhuang Grottoes, an art temple, located 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain and on the west bank of the Dangquan River, in the middle of the Shangsi Grottoes in Mogao Grottoes. Built in the early Tang Dynasty, the nine-story building is 45 meters high and nestled against a cliff and houses the world's largest indoor statue of Maitreya sitting cross-legged. This big Buddha records that it was built in the Tang Dynasty, and its statues are very rich and round, typical of the Tang Dynasty style. It is said that at that time, in order to consolidate his imperial throne, Wu Zetian advertised himself to the people as the incarnation of Maitreya Bodhisattva, so the statues at that time still seem to have many female characteristics, which is influenced by the background of the era. The nine-story building has undergone several reconstructions before and after. Originally only two floors, it was rebuilt into nine floors during the Republican period. The majestic building with the current red cornices was re-reinforced and repaired in 1986.
(2) Tibetan scripture cave
Zangjing Cave is the common name of Cave 17 of Mogao Grottoes, also known as Mingsha Stone Room, Dunhuang Stone Room, located on the north wall of Yongdao in Cave 16, built between the fifth year of Tang Dazhong and the third year of Xiantong (851-862), originally the Zen cave of Hong Li, the monk of the late Tang River West Shimen Capital, after Hong Yu's death, his subordinate monks or Wu surnamed Benjia changed the Zen cave to a shadow hall. The plan of this cave is nearly square, covered with a bucket-shaped roof, 3 meters high from the ground to the top of the cave, and a rectangular Zen bed-style low altar is built in front of the north wall, and a clay statue sits on the altar, which is a statue of Hong Lian. The north mural depicts two Bodhi trees, with branches and leaves touching each other, to show Hong Yu sitting in meditation under the Bodhi tree. On May 26, 1900, while cleaning the sand accumulation in Cave 16, Daoist Wang Yuanji accidentally discovered the Tibetan scripture cave and dug up tens of thousands of ancient Buddhist scripture manuscripts, social documents, silk paintings, embroidery, magic tools and other cultural relics from the 4th to the 11th century AD. These cultural relics are valuable documents for studying the academic and cultural development of the mainland in the past two thousand years, and the accumulation of historical texts has finally become a treasure for future generations, which is indeed a great blessing for mainland academia and world scholarship.
(3) Mogao Grottoes Cave 130
Cave 130 of Mogao Grottoes was excavated during the Shengtang Dynasty and Tianbao years, which took about 20 or 30 years, and belongs to the Great Buddha Cave, covered with a bucket-shaped roof, and the cave is in the shape of a square cone. The entire cave is 28.2 meters high, 17.26 meters wide at the bottom and 11.95 meters wide at the top. The statue inside the cave is the Maitreya Buddha statue, which is 26 meters high, which is the second largest Buddha statue in Mogao Grottoes after the "Beida Statue" (33 meters high) in Cave 96. Therefore, the Great Buddha is located in the south of the "Great Northern Statue", which is called the "Southern Great Statue" in Tang Dynasty documents. The big Buddha sits leaning against the cliff, his legs are drooping, his feet are on the ground, his left hand is on his knees, his right hand is applying a fearless seal, his head is slightly tilted, his eyes are slightly closed, he is slightly smiling, and his expression is solemn and kind. When the ancient craftsmen made this big Buddha, they deliberately enlarged the volume of the head, and the Buddha statue was 26 meters high, and the Buddha's head alone was 7 meters high, which obviously exceeded the normal proportions of the human body. Because it solves the parallax caused by the Buddha worshippers looking up at the big Buddha, the viewer can still clearly see the expression of the Buddha's face when looking up. This ingenious artistic treatment fully demonstrates the ingenuity of the ancient artists of the mainland.
(4) Mogao Grottoes Cave 112
Cave 112 is one of the representative caves of the Mogao Grottoes, built during the Middle Tang Dynasty when Tubo ruled Dunhuang. This cave is a small temple cave, and the Yongdao is a repainting of the Song Dynasty. The structure, mural content and style of the cave belong to the transitional works from the reign of the Tang Dynasty to the Tubo Dynasty, and have shown obvious characteristics. This small cave, which is less than four square meters, houses the nine meridians of various sects. Among them, the screen in the west niche of the main room is painted with stories such as the Kowloon bath and the Maitreya Sutra. The south wall draws the Diamond Sutra in the west, and the Amitayus Sutra changes one shop each. The north wall starts in the west to draw a shop for the Grace Scripture and the Medicine Master's Change. The east wall door is painted with a devil, the south of the door is painted with a general trend to change, and the north of the door is painted with a painting of Guanyin Sutra. This cave mural is small, rich in content, tightly structured, and exquisitely skilled, which is the essence of Dunhuang murals.
The mural painting of Cave 112 is painted with vermilion, yellow, black and white as the main colors, forming a gentle and heavy color beauty, especially the characters facing the flesh are mostly painted with clam powder, which is bright and thick and slightly brilliance, and the color has remained unchanged for more than a thousand years, which is very rare. The rebound pipa trick lotte in the cave view of the Amitayus Sutra is the best of its kind in the Mogao Caves, she recalls the pipa on her back, steps and dances, the dance tape is unfolded, the beat is clear, and her expression is calm and natural. The most prominent, the thumbs of the feet are cocked as if shaking in response to the beat, this special dance technique, you can see the influence left by Indian dance. The murals in this cave are representative works of the heyday and the Middle Tang Dynasty, and through mature techniques and high artistic accomplishment, they show the distinctive national style of the excellent murals of the Tang Dynasty.
(5) Mogao Grottoes Cave 428
Cave 428, located three stories above the entrance to the Mogao Grottoes, is the largest central tower pillar cave in Mogao Grottoes, built in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581). The main chamber of the cave has a square plan, with a central tower pillar with a niche on each side of the tower. The east wall gate south painting Satuna Prince Bunsen, etc., the north gate painting Suda Tai Prince Bunsen; the southern mural Zhifa Tu, the Lushena Dharma Circle Portrait, etc.; the west wall painting five-point Dharma Pagoda, Nirvana diagram, etc.; The north mural is very rich in content. The visit to this cave focuses on the story of the Buddha Bunsen of Prince Satan sacrificing his body to feed the tiger and Su Da Bang to give alms. According to the classification tradition of the Buddhist scriptures, "Bunsen" describes the many good deeds that Shakyamuni Buddha did in his previous life. The accumulation of these good deeds led to Gautama. Siddhartha (Shakyamuni) was able to eventually attain Buddhahood. There are about 1,200 portraits of patrons painted in this cave, making it the largest number of patrons in the Dunhuang Grottoes. According to these portraits, it can be seen that the excavation and creation of this cave is a model of cooperation between all walks of life in Hexi during the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
The story of Prince Satan who sacrificed his life to feed the tiger book tells that the three princes of the king of the treasure kingdom were out playing, and they met a tigress with seven tiger cubs in the mountains, hungry and thirsty, and were about to die. This scene aroused the strong compassion of the little prince Satun, who decided to give up his life to save the tiger. But the tiger was too hungry to eat the satun. Satan climbed to the top of the mountain, stabbed the neck with a bamboo tip, jumped off the cliff, and sacrificed himself to feed the tiger. When the king and queen heard the news, they rushed to the mountains, and with grief, the people put the remains of Prince Satan in a treasure letter and raised a tower to offer.
The story of Prince Xu Dafu's extensive charity tells that the crown prince of Yebo Kingdom is willing to give and respond to requests. The enemy nation bought the Brahmin, begging him for a white elephant who was victorious in a hundred battles, and the prince gave generously. The king was furious when he heard the news and expelled the crown prince from the country. Prince Sudabang drove away with his wife and children, and on the way he encountered Brahmins begging, so he gave alms all his horses, carts, and clothing. The family worked hard to come to the remote mountains to practice seclusion. Later, another Brahmin came to ask for his two sons as slaves. In order to keep his promise, Sudabang endured the pain of giving alms to the Brahmins as well. At the end of the story, the Brahmins took their two children to the kingdom of Yebo to be betrayed, and for the old king to know, he ransomed his grandchildren and welcomed the prince back to China.
(6) Mogao Grottoes Cave 148
Cave 148 of Mogao Grottoes is located at the southern end of the cave area, and the cave shape belongs to the Nirvana Cave, which was built in the eleventh year of the Tang Dynasty (776 AD) by Li Dabin of the Longxi Wangclan, and was later rebuilt in the late Tang, Western Xia and Qing dynasties. The main chamber of the cave has a rectangular plan, the roof of the cave is a longitudinal roof, and the Buddha altar in the center of the cave is sculpted with a statue of Shakyamuni Nirvana. This statue of Nirvana faces east, with a pillow on its right flank and a tired foot, with a length of 14.40 meters. Behind the Nirvana statue are many bodhisattvas, bhikkhus, celestial beings, etc., all of which have been rebuilt by future generations. Around the Nirvana statue is a huge series of Nirvana Sutras spanning the south, west and north walls, which depicts fragments of history and myths before and after the fall of Shakyamuni Buddha based on the Maha Nirvana Sutra. This group of murals is about 2.50 meters high, with a total length of 23 meters, and the whole picture is divided into 10 groups, 66 plots, and more than 500 characters and animals, which is the largest Nirvana Sutra in Dunhuang murals. The whole picture is harmonious and majestic, vividly depicted, brilliant in color, elegant in landscape and exquisite architecture, which makes the viewer pleasing to the eye and beautiful.
(7) Cishi Pagoda
The Cishi Pagoda, built in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, originally existed in the abandoned temple of Sanwei Mountain, and was moved to the Mogao Grottoes in 1981. The shape of this tower is very similar to a pavilion, with a single eaves, belonging to a single-eaves pavilion-style tower. The tower is octagonal in plan, and there is a circle of corridors around the tower, and the eaves of the tower are selected farther, and this circle of eaves columns encloses the corridor. The whole tower is small and exquisite, only for simple stacking method, the waist is made of patterned bricks with dragon horses, and the brick base is the tower body, made of wood. The height of the eaves pillars is nearly 2 meters, and the top is connected with a fang and a bucket arch to support the eaves to pick out the cornice. The walls of the tower are made of adobe, and the top of the tower is not tiled, and all are plastered with purple mud. Double Dragon is hidden above the wall door inside the tower room. Inside is a square dome roof chamber, in which a statue of the Ci clan is sculpted. The walls on both sides are painted with statues of Manjushri and Puxian Bodhisattva. The chamber top algae well is circular and painted with a dragon. The tower is a typical example of civil architecture made of local materials on the Northwest Loess Plateau, which has a history of more than a thousand years and is still intact, which is an important object for the study of the ancient pagoda of civil engineering structure.
(8) Dunhuang Grottoes Cultural Relics Protection Research and Exhibition Center
The Dunhuang Grottoes Cultural Relics Protection Research and Exhibition Center, across the river from the Mogao Grottoes, covers an area of more than 20,000 square meters and a construction area of more than 5,000 square meters. The center's exhibition section features a video studio and three exhibition areas. The video studio shows the audience a video about the Dunhuang Grotto Art and Exhibition Center, where the essence and development of Dunhuang Grotto art is presented. The first exhibition area is eight original replica caves, including Cave 275 of the Sixteen Kingdoms Period of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Cave 249 and 285 of the Western Wei Dynasty, Cave 419 and 276 of the Sui Dynasty, Cave 217 of the Shengtang Dynasty, Cave 3 of the Yuan Dynasty and Cave 25 of the Middle Tang Dynasty of the Yulin Caves of Anxi, all of which are outstanding representative caves of various periods, showing the style of Dunhuang cave art from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Yuan Dynasty. The second exhibition area is an exhibition of fine cultural relics unearthed from the Dunhuang Grottoes, with display units such as the creation of the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, the treasures of Dunhuang murals, the creation process of the Dunhuang Grottoes and the painting tools used by the painters to draw the caves, the exquisite ancient proportional fabrics found in the Mogao Grottoes, the authentic ancient manuscripts found in the Zangjing Cave, and the Dunhuang tile art. From different aspects, it reflects the development history of Dunhuang Grottoes and colorful cultural relics. The third exhibition area is an auxiliary exhibition area, which can hold various exhibitions and thematic cultural relics displays. The exhibition center is the only research and exhibition institution for the protection of grottoes in China.
(9) West Thousand Buddha Cave
The West Thousand Buddha Cave is named because it is located in the west of the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes (commonly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves), excavated on the cliff face of the Dang River, and the excavation period lasted from the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties to the Five Dynasties and the Uighur period, and is an important part of Dunhuang art. According to the Dunhuang suicide note hidden in Paris, the West Thousand Buddha Caves should have been excavated earlier than the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, and at the latest in the same period as the Mogao Grottoes. There are 16 existing caves (22 caves and niches) in the West Thousand Buddha Cave, of which Caves 1 to 3 are Tang Caves, Caves 4 to 8 are Wei Caves, and Cave 16 are Late Tang Caves, these 9 caves are well preserved, and many others have collapsed, and the era is difficult to identify. Among the 9 well-preserved grottoes, most of them have a central seat in the center, with niches hewn around the seat, Buddha statues inside, and many painted Buddhas, Buddha sitting teachings, and Buddha Nirvana statues on the four walls. The story of the western section of the southern wall of the Northern Wei Grottoes (Laozi Jing) and the eastern section of the painting (Laodu Fork Dou Shenghua) are the stories of Buddha's life that are not found in the Northern Wei caves of Mogao Grottoes, which can fill in their gaps and have unique value. The four walls of the remaining niches and the algae wells rarely depict Buddha Bunsen stories.
(10) Cave 19 of the West Thousand Buddha Cave
Cave 19 of the West Thousand Buddha Cave was built in the fifth dynasty, and the cave shape is relatively unique, with a longitudinal round arched roof. The front opens a large niche, the existing main statue in the niche leans on the Buddha, is the West Thousand Buddha Cave preserved a five-generation period of the color sculpture, this Buddha statue dignified, solemn expression, plump and round skin, simple and moderate clothing patterns, elegant colors, quite the style of Tang Dynasty statues, along the east and west walls built with a statue platform, the original sculpture of sixteen arhats, thirteen extant bodies, which is the only one in the Dunhuang Grottoes to express the theme of sixteen arhats in the form of statues. According to historical records, Zhang Sengxiu of the Southern Dynasty, Lu Lengjia, Wang Wei and others of the Tang Dynasty all painted sixteen arhat statues, but it was not until the Five Dynasties period that portraits and statues of sixteen arhats began to become popular in the Central Plains, and the appearance of sixteen arhat statues in this cave shows that Dunhuang Buddhist art and Buddhist art in the Central Plains basically developed simultaneously. The murals in this cave are all original works of the five dynasties, and the main niche is painted with ten disciples, six bodhisattvas, and eight parts of the heavenly dragon. The east and west walls are painted from the top down, and the statue of Arhat is painted. In the Dunhuang Grottoes, it is rare to express so many Arhat statues in a cave by combining painting and sculpture, so this cave is called the Luohan Hall by experts.
4. Concluding remarks
The excavation of the Mogao Grottoes lasted about 1,000 years from the Sixteen Kingdoms period to the Yuan Dynasty, which is unique among Chinese caves. At the same time, Dunhuang Grotto Art is an art gallery containing the history of China's Middle Ages, an artistic miracle of Han Mo Shisha. In terms of time, spanning more than ten dynasties and more than 1,000 years, the territory spans all the grottoes in ancient Dunhuang (including Mogao Grottoes, West Thousand Buddha Caves, Yulin Grottoes, East Thousand Buddha Caves, etc.), including architecture, sculpture and painting in form, and the number of murals alone can reach nearly 60,000 square meters, becoming the largest ancient mural remains in the history of Chinese murals, known as the "Louvre of the East". The Mogao Grottoes are not only a brilliant artistic treasure trove of ancient Chinese civilization, but also an important witness of the dialogue and exchanges between different civilizations that took place on the ancient Silk Road.