Oriental art pearl refers to

The Pearl of Oriental Art refers to the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang.

Mogao Grottoes, commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave, is located in Dunhuang at the western end of Hexi Corridor.

Founded in the pre-Qin period of the Sixteen Countries, after the Sixteen Countries, Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Five Dynasties, Xixia and Yuan Dynasties, it has formed a huge scale, with 735 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals and 24 15 clay sculptures. It is the largest and richest Buddhist art site in the world.

196 1 year, the State Council, People's Republic of China (PRC) announced the Mogao grottoes as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. 1987, Mogao grottoes was listed as a world cultural heritage. Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi, Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan, and Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui, Gansu are also called the four major grottoes in China.

20211kloc-0/8, Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu Province was selected as one of the "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in a Hundred Years".

The Mogao Grottoes are dug on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, facing Dangquan in the front and Sanwei Mountain, a branch of Qilian Mountain in the east. The total length from north to south is1.680m, and there are 735 caves built in the past dynasties, which are distributed on the cliff with a height of1-30m, with 1-4 floors above and below.

It is divided into south and north areas, of which the south area is a place of Buddhist rituals, with 492 murals and painted sculptures of various dynasties, more than 2,400 painted sculptures, murals of more than 45,000 square meters, five wooden eaves in Tang and Song Dynasties, and nine floors rebuilt in the early Republic of China as a symbol of the Mogao Grottoes.

There are more than 20 lotus column pagodas and more than 20,000 floor tiles. There are 243 caves in the North District (another 5 caves have been included in No.492 in the North District), which are places for monks to practice, live and bury. There are heatable adobe sleeping platform, stove pit, flue, niche, lampstand, etc., but most of them have no painted sculptures and murals.

Every cave in the Mogao Grottoes is a comprehensive art of cave architecture, colored sculpture and painting. The largest cave is more than 200 square meters, and the smallest is less than 1 square meter. Grottoes mainly include Zen Grottoes, Central Pagoda Grottoes, Buddhist niches, Buddhist altar grottoes, Nirvana Grottoes, seven buddha Grottoes and Elephant Grottoes.

The main contents of color plastic sculpture combined with plastic painting are Buddha, Bodhisattva, disciple, King of Heaven, Lux statue and so on. Color plastic forms include round plastic, floating plastic, shadow plastic and good mud. Except for the two giant buddhas in Caves 96 and 130 and the two reclining buddhas in Caves 148 and 158, the round sculptures and reliefs are all carved with wooden bones.

The Buddha statue is located in the center, with disciples, bodhisattvas, heavenly kings and mighty men standing on both sides, ranging from 3 to 1 1. The statue of Maitreya Buddha in Cave 96 is 35.6 meters high, ranging from 10 cm.