Mogao Grottoes

Located on the southeastern region of Dunhuang County in the province of Gansu, the Mogao grottoes is considered to be the richest abode of Buddhist art. The Mogao Grottoes are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China together with Longmen and Yungang. In 1987, the Mogao Grottoes were listed as the World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The Mogao grottoes were built on the eastern slopes of the Mingsha Mountain. Construction of the Buddhist cave shrines began in 366 AD as places to store scriptures and art. A Buddhist monk called Yue Seng carved the first cave of Mongo in 366AD, during the rule of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. His attempt was carried further by the other succeeding dynasties resulting in the beautiful collection of caves.

The Mogao Grottoes has a collection of 492 caves with 2,100 colored statues and 45,000 square meters of wall painting marked from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries. Most of them are from the Northern and Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties while the caves are mostly rectangular with recessed, decorated ceilings. There are 5 grottoes with a wooden structure. The largest has a height of 40 meters whereas the smallest ones are so small that only the head could be moved in. The colored statues symbolize the incredible creation of their creators and vary in size ranging from 33 meters high to a few centimeters only.

The Mogao Grottoes provide voluminous research material for the study of all aspects of Chinese medieval society, in areas such as religion, art, politics, economics, military affairs, culture, literature, language, music, dance, architecture and medical science. They also describe the Chinese national history along with portraying the exchange of Chinese culture with other nations of the world. The rich culture and art unearthed in the caves can offer the people a further study of Chinese history and culture.