The Mogao Caves are a rock complex that was once a site for Buddhist prayer and pilgrimage. Their story began in the distant 4th century, when a vision appeared before the monk Lo Tsun, who by the will of fate found himself on the top of a cliff.
It was at this place that he cut down the first cave. Coincidentally or not, the Great Silk Road passed by it, so soon he had many associates who wanted to set up a personal place for prayer. Gradually their number grew and eventually reached 1000.
In the 14th century, Buddhists left the Mogao caves and were forgotten for a long time, until the beginning of the 20th century. When restoration work began, part of the niches and the cultural heritage stored in them was lost forever.
Today Mogao is home to 500 caves, each containing wall paintings, sculptures and objects related to Buddhism. The time for creating masterpieces varies. The authors of some are known, the names of others are a mystery. In fact, this is a real encyclopedia from which you can study the movements that have ever existed in Buddhism. Nowadays, specialists from around the world are actively engaged in this.
Only 30 caves are open to tourists, but this is enough to get an idea of the past and present of Buddhism. When going on an excursion, please note that all entrances are closed with steel doors, which can only be opened by an accompanying employee. Therefore, most likely, individual visitors will have to join an organized group. In addition, Mogao has no lighting at all, so you need to have a flashlight with you. It can be rented at the box office.
To help guests navigate the caves well, they are numbered. The largest, No. 96, is the hallmark of the complex. It was in honor of her that it got its name. The main attraction stored under this vault is a 34.5-meter statue of Buddha, considered the largest interior statue in the world.
When planning a trip to the Mogao Caves, you must definitely take into account that the number of visitors who can visit the complex every day is limited to six thousand people. That is why it is better to book a ticket in advance - on the official website or at one of the ticket offices.
Attractions nearby
Not far from the Mogao Caves there is another famous attraction of the region - Yueyaquan Lake, which has the shape of a crescent. Around it, surrounded by dunes, a small but very beautiful oasis has formed, which is rightfully considered one of the “Chinese pearls”.
Where to stay
There are no hotels in the immediate vicinity of the Mogao Caves. It will be most convenient to stay in the city of Dunhuang, located 20 kilometers away. There are a lot of accommodation options here - from budget hostels, for example Dunhuang Taoyuan Hostel or Dunhuang 8090 Guest House, where you can spend a night in a dormitory room for 8 guests for 350-400 rubles per person, to the luxurious four-star The Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel, more like a palace. True, for a double room you will have to pay at least 5,000 rubles per day.
How to get to Mogao Caves
You need to start your journey to the Mogao Caves from the already mentioned city of Dunhuang. A minibus departs regularly from the train station and takes you directly to the place. Another option is a taxi. Of course, it will cost more. In addition, you need to bargain with the drivers - they never turn on the taximeters on the Dunhuang-Mogao Caves route.
The Mogao Caves are world-famous ruins where monuments of Buddhist art have been discovered, as well as a cultural heritage of China and all mankind. Their construction did not stop for ten centuries, that is, it was carried out from the 4th to the 14th centuries. Mogao Caves are located on the eastern slope of Mingshashan Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of the city of Dunhuang, which is located in the northwestern province of Gansu. The length of the caves from south to north is 1680 meters. This is truly a magnificent sight! In 1987, UNESCO included the Mogao Caves in the Register of World Cultural Heritage.
According to sources, the Mogao Caves were created in 366. When the holy elder, monk Lezun traveled to these places, he had a vision of a thousand sparkling Buddhas. He decided to create the first cave here. Subsequently, the construction of caves did not stop for one thousand five hundred years. During this time, more than a dozen dynasties changed. By the 7th century AD, during the Tang Dynasty, a grandiose complex consisting of more than a thousand caves containing Buddhist sculptures was finally created in Dunhuang. That is why the Mogao Caves are called the cave of a thousand Buddhas.
Cave temples are an example of a harmonious combination of architectural, sculptural and fresco art. For believers, they served as a place of religious worship, for others - as a magical temple, giving them the opportunity to enjoy beauty. The level of artistic skill with which the frescoes were executed allows us to judge the state of art in China in the Middle Ages; The theme of the frescoes is inspired by Buddhist legends.
Although the Mogao Caves have suffered greatly from various damages, today there are more than 700 caves preserved here, of which 492 caves contain painted statues and murals, covering a total area of 45 thousand square meters.
In addition, there are about 50 thousand Buddhist manuscripts and other valuables found here by a monk named Wang in the Cangjingdong Cave, which served as a repository for sacred Buddhist sutras. Among them are about 1000 drawings on silk, prints, embroideries and calligraphy samples. If you put all the frescoes, statues and drawings on silk in one row, then the length of such a “scroll” will exceed 30 kilometers. These historical works contain information about the history, geography, politics, national composition, military art, knowledge of philology, calligraphy, religion, art, medicine, science and technology of China, South and Central Asia, as well as Europe. No wonder they are called the “encyclopedia of the Middle Ages.”
After the Taoist monk Wang discovered caves where Buddhist sutras were kept, he took several of them and sold them. As these cultural treasures spread among the people, the news of the repository of ancient manuscripts in the Mogao Caves spread like lightning throughout China. So-called “researchers” began to flock here from everywhere. With the connivance of the Qing government, in less than 20 years, such “researchers” from Russia, Great Britain, France, Japan, the USA and other countries plundered Dunhuang, they took away about 40 thousand sacred Buddhist canons and a huge number of fragments of wall paintings, sculptures, causing enormous damage to the monument devastation.
Currently, Dunhuang cultural treasures are kept in museums and private collections in the UK, France, Russia, India, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Republic of Korea, Finland and the USA. The total value of the stolen relics is 2/3 of all cultural property remaining in China. After the discovery of caves containing Buddhist relics, a number of Chinese scientists began to study them under extremely difficult conditions. In 1910, the first books dedicated to Dunhuang were published, and it was then that a special area of study dedicated to this issue appeared.
For several decades, scientists around the world began to study the art of Dunhuang with great interest, in particular, the results of research by Chinese scientists had far-reaching prospects for further study. As a priceless treasure belonging to Chinese culture, the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang have always been closely guarded by the Chinese government. In 1950, the Mogao Caves were included in the list of the first objects that are under special state protection.
In 1987, UNESCO included them in the Register of World Cultural Heritage. Today, at the foot of Sanweishan Mountain, which is located opposite the Mogao Caves, the Dunhuang Art Museum has been created. This Museum has recreated the appearance of some of the caves; this is the only way to preserve the cultural values of the caves by opening them to the general public. Foreign tourists, after visiting the pavilion, highly appreciate the treasures of the Mogao Caves: “This is the greatest treasury of Buddhist art in the world.”
In the photo, the stone guards of the city of Mogao temple caves are Buddhist stupas. Approaching the sacred site, pilgrims bowed their heads in front of the stupas, asking permission from higher powers to bring gifts and offer prayers in the skillfully carved grottoes.
Qianfodong Temple Complex
The Qianfodong temple complex includes hundreds of sanctuaries, but is most often named after its largest cave, Mogao. Monuments of Buddhist art, created over a whole millennium, were discovered here. In 1987, the Mogao cave temples were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as an example of a harmonious combination of architectural, sculptural and fresco art.
Mogao Caves are located on the eastern slope of Mingshashan Mountain, near the county town of Dunhuang in the northwest of the province.
Mogao is a collection of the earliest Buddhist temples in China. They were created on the eastern border of the desert, along which the Great Silk Road stretched. Caravans not only carried goods, but also spread the teachings of Buddha.
Before Buddhism entered China, Taoist and Confucian temples were built of wood. The tradition of cave temples came along with Buddhism from India, where poverty and lack of building materials forced them to resort to similar construction methods.
Mogao temples began to be created in 353-366. At that time, the old monk Lezun (according to other sources - Yuezun, Li Zun or Lo Chun) wandered in these places. Stopping under the mountainside, he experienced an incredible sensation when he saw a vision of a thousand sparkling Buddhas. Considering this a sign from above, Lezun decided to carve a cave into the mountainside and turn it into a temple. He collected donations for construction from traders traveling with caravans. Gradually, as Buddhism spread, the caves became a place of pilgrimage.
In the future, the construction of caves did not stop: this was done both by wandering monks and by workers specially hired by local rulers, dignitaries and rich people - traders and landowners.
More and more temples appeared in the caves, and by the 7th century, during the Tang Dynasty, a grandiose complex of more than a thousand caves was created here. Hence its name: translated from Chinese, Qianfodong means “Cave of a Thousand Buddhas,” and Mogao means “Cave for Little Ones.” It was required to enter with a respectful bow.
By the 14th century The Great Silk Road is losing its importance as a trade route between East and West, Islamization is increasing, and Buddhism is losing its primacy in the area. The Mogao Caves were abandoned and almost forgotten.
The caves are carved into the mountainside, in 3-4 tiers, for more than 1.5 km. Early rock-cut temples have a central column supporting the ceiling. From the 6th century the ceilings become pyramidal, the need for columns disappears, and the free floor area increases.
About 2.5 thousand clay statues of Buddha and bodhisattvas have been preserved in the caves. Among the sculptures there are very tiny ones, the size of a palm, and there are also gigantic ones over 30 m high.
To date, out of a thousand temples, several hundred have been restored, only about 30 are available for viewing. Others are closed either because they are not of significant interest to tourists, or restoration work in them has not yet been completed.
Cave temples are located in an oasis, which in ancient times was located at the intersection of trade routes. Trade caravans stopped here before a grueling journey through the desert, beyond which, already on the mountain paths, robbers were waiting for them. The appearance of temples in this place was caused by the need for a sanctuary in which one could turn to higher powers with a prayer for protection.
Manuscripts and cave frescoes
The main treasure of the caves is the tens of thousands of Buddhist manuscripts, silk paintings, engravings, embroideries and calligraphy samples stored in them.
In later cave temples in China, such as Longmen and Yungang, the main element of the interior decoration is sculpture, while in Mogao it is fresco painting with a total area of over 40 thousand m 2.
The painting technique is the same almost everywhere: frescoes painted with multi-colored adhesive paints are applied to dry soil.
The paintings include images of many characters and are made both in the form of a frieze and cover the entire wall of the cave, including the vaults.
The themes of the frescoes range from illustrations of Buddha's teachings to intricate floral designs. The goal is the same for all: to instruct and inspire illiterate believers in much the same way as the stained glass windows of medieval cathedrals and the icons of Orthodox churches.
And after many centuries, the images, full of internal dynamism, amaze with their liveliness.
In 1900, the Taoist hermit monk Wang was clearing wind-blown sand from one of the caves when part of the side wall collapsed, revealing another cave with a mountain of old written scrolls more than 3 m high.
As it later turned out, the manuscripts represent an encyclopedic collection of works on the history, geography, politics, demography, strategy and tactics of military operations, philology, calligraphy, religion, art, medicine, science and technology of China, South and Central Asia, as well as Europe.
The provincial governor ordered Wang to keep the scrolls under lock and key, but seven years later British archaeologist Aurel Stein learned about the find. By deception, he managed to bring thousands of scrolls to London. Then the library of scrolls was dismantled almost completely to European and Russian museums.
The authorities of the Qing dynasty did nothing to stop the massive looting of national treasures. When they came to their senses, most of the scrolls - the most valuable - were already outside the country. About 40 thousand sacred Buddhist canons, countless fragments of wall paintings and sculptures “leaked” abroad.
It is now known that the treasure of manuscripts in Dunhuang was a priceless monastic library. The oldest manuscripts date back to the 5th century. Around 1035, enemies appeared, the scrolls were walled up, and later forgotten. Among the most valuable is the text of the Diamond Sutra of 868: the oldest printed book in the world.
After the discovery of caves containing Buddhist relics, Chinese scientists began to study them. In 1910, the first books dedicated to Dunhuang were published.
In 1949, the Chinese government sent an archaeological expedition here, whose work continues today. In 1950, the Mogao Caves were included in the list of particularly important sites under state protection.
The entrances to the Mogao caves themselves are closed with steel doors, and there is no lighting in them. All caves are numbered; they do not have any specific names, except for one. Cave No. 96 is the largest and is the actual Mogao Cave, created in 695 during the Tang Dynasty. Since it is higher than the rock wall, it is covered with a wooden roof and looks like a pagoda from the outside. The 34.5 m tall image of Maitreya is considered the largest indoor Buddha figure in the world.
For those who find it difficult to explore the caves themselves, the Temple Caves Art Museum has been created, located at the foot of Sanweishan Mountain, opposite Mogao. The museum has recreated the interior decoration of the temples.
general information
Location : northwest China.
Administrative affiliation : Gansu Province.
Nearest city county: Dunhuang - 187,578 people. (2010).
Creation: IV-XIV centuries.
Languages: Chinese and dialects.
Ethnic composition : Han, Huizu.
Religions: Buddhism, Islam.
Currency unit : CNY.
Airport: Lanzhou (international).
Numbers
Caves: number - 735, location - length of the cliff in which the caves are carved - 1680 m from south to north, height of the arch of the largest - 40 m, the smallest - less than 1 m.
Manuscripts: quantity - about 60 thousand.
Frescoes: total area - 45 thousand m2.
Statues: total number - 2415, height - from 10 cm to 33 m.
Height above sea level : 1330 m.
Distance: 25 km southeast of Dunhuang Oasis.
Climate and weather
Temperate, sharply continental, desert.
Long cold winter, hot and dry summer.
Average January temperature : -8.5°C.
Average temperature in July : +24.5°C.
Average annual precipitation : 50 mm.
Average annual relative humidity : 45%.
Attractions
Natural
Singing sand dunes of the Taklamakan Desert
Yueyquan Lake
Historical
Yumen Passage (Jade Gate of the Great Wall of China) and ruins of watchtowers from the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220)
Temple caves of Mogao (frescoes, statues, manuscripts, IV-XIV centuries)
White Horse Pagoda (384)
Cultural
Temple Caves Art Museum
Curious facts
Only five wooden buildings remain in the caves.
At the early stage of construction of temple caves, the Buddhism preached in them called for self-denial, even self-sacrifice. The canonical expression of this position can be traced in the Jatakas - ancient Indian legends about the previous reincarnations of Buddha Gautama. The temple depiction of the events of a particular legend is a series of paintings, partly in the shape of the letter S, starting at the top right. And the style of early images in the Mogao caves has pronounced Indian features: people wear seamless skirts or loincloths, the torso is naked, the skin is dark, and the facial features are typically Indian. But from the end of the 6th century. and with the coming to power of the Sui dynasty, which conquered Dunhuang, as Chinese Mahayana Buddhism spread, promising salvation not only for monks, but also for laymen, images are increasingly dominated not by an abstract nirvana, but by a completely visual paradise. It is presented in the form of many beautiful ponds, where in the center, on lotus flowers, Buddhas sit, musicians play, dancers are frozen in erotic poses. Moreover, most of the participants in these scenes have pronounced Chinese facial features.
In 1920, a large group of Russian military - white emigrants used the caves as barracks, which led to damage to the frescoes.
In cave No. 323 of the beginning of the 7th century. depicts the early history of the Silk Road: Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty and Zhang Qian, who traveled at his command to the “western lands” - as far as present-day Uzbekistan and compiled reports that served as the basis for plans for conquest that expanded the territory of China.
Currently, the cultural treasures of Dunhuang are kept in museums and private collections in Great Britain, France, Russia, India, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Republic of Korea, Finland and the USA. According to some estimates, the total auction value of the stolen relics is 2/3 of the value of all cultural property of the early Buddhist era remaining in China.
Cave No. 16 is very large, with a thousand picturesque images of Buddha from the Western Xia era. Cave No. 61 contains full-length images of the founders of the temple, including a princess from Khotan who married the ruler of Dunhuang. In cave No. 130, dug in 713-741. during the Tang Dynasty, there is also an image of a monumental Maitreya 26 m high. In cave No. 148 775 there is a reclining Buddha 15.6 m long, mourned by seventy-two disciples, bodhisattvas and other beings. In Cave No. 158 there are images of mourning bodhisattvas numbing the pain by inflicting wounds on themselves with a dagger.
During the exploration of the caves, unique scrolls were discovered not only of Buddhist content, but also Manichaean, Christian and Zoroastrian texts. Among others, the oldest text of Zoroastrian prayer and the so-called “Jesus Sutras” were kept here, which are supposedly proof of the journey of Jesus Christ to the East.
There are many illustrations of Indian Jataka legends in the caves. In cave No. 257 you can see the famous Jataka about the wonderful nine-colored antelope: she saves a drowning man, in return asks not to give away her habitat, but the rescued man betrays her, for which he is punished. Cave No. 428 contains images of several jatakas at once, where the death demon Mara orders his beautiful daughter to dance in front of Gautama in order to arouse worldly passions in him and thereby deprive him of his final victory; about the generous prince of Sudan, who gave the enemy neighboring country, gripped by drought, a magical elephant that could conjure rain; the story of Prince Sattva, who sacrificed himself to a tigress dying of hunger.
Over the course of a thousand years, hundreds of masters created five thousand sanctuaries, which today are a stone encyclopedia of the history of Buddhism. The Mogao Caves are a whole system of temples carved into the rock like a honeycomb. Filled with frescoes and sculptures, the complex illustrates the life of the Buddha during different periods of his life and even after.
The Mogao Caves are located on the eastern slope of the Singing Sand Mountain - Minshashan - 25 km from the city of Dunhuang in the southeast of the Taklamakan Desert. The cave complex is located in the heart of the oasis, whose lush green vegetation is supported by the waters of the Danquan River. It was here that in ancient times two branches of the Great Silk Road met. Through these places, merchants brought precious stones, carpets, wool and religions to China.
Before Buddhism arrived in the country from India, all Chinese temples were built of wood. The tradition of building cave religious buildings also originates in India: due to poverty and lack of building materials, pilgrims found refuge in caves, which were then rebuilt into spiritual abodes.
How did the Chinese Mogao caves appear? There is a legend that in 366, a monk named Luo Tsun had a vision of a thousand Buddhas. It was after this that Lo Tsun began to carve the first cave in the rock. Merchants passing by helped: the monk asked to donate money for the improvement of cave temples. And so gradually, as Buddhism spread throughout China, the Mogao caves became a place of pilgrimage. Hundreds of artists and craftsmen worked in them, and the living conditions were more than ascetic: the craftsmen lived in tiny caves in the north of the complex and slept on brick beds.
The work did not stop for many years, decades, centuries. And only in the 7th century a temple complex similar to what we can see now was formed. By the way, all caves have different sizes. There are very tiny ones, the smallest is less than a meter. 16 temples are simply immense in size. And 96 caves have a height of up to 40 meters. 492 temples have survived to this day.
The craftsmen were faced with the task of not only building temples, but also decorating them according to traditions. Thus, frescoes appeared on the walls, and sculptural compositions made of clay appeared inside the caves. Mogao houses almost two and a half thousand clay statues of Buddha, saints and bodhisattvas - beings who help people on the path to enlightenment. The sizes of the statues range from 10 to 33 meters. Moreover, 50 thousand square meters of paintings and drawings on various subjects have been preserved on the walls of the caves: from ornaments and fairy tales to the teachings of the Buddha himself and sacred books. All these relics were meant to instruct uneducated believers, following the example of stained glass windows in medieval cathedrals. There are also 5 wooden buildings preserved in the Mogao caves. The flourishing of fine art at the temple complex occurred during the Tang Dynasty.
However, starting from the 14th century, the Mogao caves were abandoned and practically forgotten. In 1900, a Taoist monk named Wang, who lived as a hermit, cleared one of the caves from wind-blown sand. At that moment, one of the walls collapsed, behind which he discovered a mountain of old scrolls three meters high. The monk found a cache of collections of manuscripts and paintings on paper and silk. There were sutras and Buddhist texts in different languages. The most valuable of all works was the text of the Diamond Sutra, the oldest printed book in the world. It dates back to 868.
Wang informed the provincial governor about his discovery, and he, not wanting to spend money on transporting the most valuable cargo, ordered him to guard the scrolls. After 7 years, the English archaeologist Aurel Stein learned about the mountain of ancient manuscripts. The Briton managed to win Van over and took more than a third of the 20,000 scrolls, which he immediately took to London. Now they are all kept in the British Museum.
The French explorer Paul Pelliot was also able to obtain part of the treasure. Fluent in Chinese, he sorted through the remaining manuscripts, selected the most valuable and took them to Paris. When the Chinese authorities finally came to their senses, most of the national property had already been taken outside the country.
Monk Wang's discovery was nothing more than a monastery library. The oldest manuscripts date back to the 5th century. When the Mogao Caves were attacked by foreigners in 1035, the scrolls were walled up and then simply forgotten as the years passed.
In 1949, the Chinese government sent an archaeological expedition to Moga, which continues to work in the caves to this day.
In 1961, the Moga Caves received the status of a national monument, and in 1987 they began to be considered a World Heritage Site.
Of the thousand Buddhist temples, only six hundred have been restored. And many times fewer are available to visitors - only 30 sanctuaries. The remaining temples are closed, as they are either of little interest or contain tantric frescoes.
The most ancient caves are located in the center of the rock. Each temple is clearly marked upon entry. To preserve the frescoes and sculptures, there is no artificial lighting in the caves, so all visitors and their guides must stock up with flashlights in order to plunge into the history of religious beliefs and examine the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas in all detail.
Mogao- the largest cave of the early Buddhist cave temple complex of Qianfodong, erected in 353-366. n. e. in Gansu Province, China. Qianfodong, more commonly called Mogao, unites more than 700 caves, the total length of which is 1680 meters.
Magao's 492 caves contain painted statues and murals. In addition, there are about 50 thousand Buddhist manuscripts and other valuables found here by a monk named Wang in the Cangjingdong Cave, which served as a repository for sacred Buddhist sutras. Among them are about 1000 drawings on silk, prints, embroideries and calligraphy samples. These historical works contain information about the history, geography, politics, national composition, military art, knowledge of philology, calligraphy, religion, art, medicine, science and technology of China, South and Central Asia, as well as Europe.
Mogao is one of the earliest Buddhist temples in China. Its appearance in the east of the Taklamakan desert is not accidental: caravans with silk passed through here, along with which Buddhist teachings seeped into China. Unlike later cave temples like Longmeng and Yungang, the decoration of Mogao is dominated not by sculpture, but by fresco painting. Its area is estimated at 42,000 square meters. meters. Many paintings cover entire cave walls.
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