Why do the Buddha statues in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes have to be built in the desert?

Dunhuang is located in the western section of Hexi Corridor, where the world-famous Mogao Grottoes are located. The Mogao Grottoes are one of the brightest pearls in the world art history. There are 24 15 exquisite Buddhist sculptures and 45,000 square meters exquisite Buddhist murals in the caves of Mogao Grottoes, which are called the Thousand Buddha Cave and have the reputation of "Louvre in the East".

Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes were not built overnight. It was founded in the Sixteen Kingdoms period before the Qin Dynasty, and it was only after the renovation and expansion of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Northern Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the Xixia Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty that it formed such a large scale today.

The length of the Mogao Grottoes from north to south is about 1.6 km. There are at most five layers of Buddha statues in the cave, and the layout array is rigorous and orderly, like a beehive, which is quite spectacular.

In addition to thousands of Buddha statues and thousands of pictures of Buddha statues, there are Tibetan scriptures caves, of which more than 50,000 ancient Tibetan scriptures have been excavated. Dunhuang studies, which are now devoted to Dunhuang culture, belong to the modern disciplines, and its main purpose is to study the classics in Tibetan scriptures and Dunhuang art.

The Mogao Grottoes were dug on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City. The area is remote and the natural environment is harsh.

Why didn't this Buddhist stronghold, known as the pearl of oriental art and the treasure house of culture, be built in a place with dense crowds and suitable climate, but on a remote and desolate Gobi desert?

The most popular saying is the vision of the holy land. It is said that one evening in 366, the second year of Fu Jian Jian Yuan, the former emperor of Zhao Xuan in Qin Dynasty, when Shaman Lezun passed by Mingsha Mountain and rested by a hill, a strange image suddenly appeared: the whole Mingsha Mountain was shrouded in Buddha's light, and there were thousands of golden Buddha statues looming in the Buddha's light.