A guide introducing Dunhuang murals

Dear friends:

Hello. Now I will take you to visit the world-famous treasure house of Buddhist art - Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. The Mogao Grottoes are 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City. I will use this time to give a brief introduction to the Mogao Grottoes.

Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Luoyang Longmen Grottoes and Datong Yungang Grottoes are also known as the three major grottoes in China. The Mogao Grottoes were excavated 128 years earlier than the Longmen Grottoes and 94 years earlier than the Yungang Grottoes. The Mogao Grottoes are famous for their long history. It is famous all over the world for the large scale of the building, the large number of murals, the large number of statues, the complete preservation, and the profound artistic value of it, and enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad. Tourists arrive one after another throughout the year, playing an important role in promoting cultural exchanges, spreading theories, promoting national art, and conducting patriotic education. The mural art of the Mogao Grottoes is not found in the Longmen and Yungang Grottoes, and is unmatched by any cave temple in the world. It is the essence of the art of the Mogao Grottoes. If the 45,000 square meters of murals were connected one by one, they would be 25 kilometers long. If these murals were placed on the roadside, they could form a long gallery from the city to the Mogao Grottoes. Its grand scale, wide range of themes, and exquisite art are called "a big gallery" by Japanese scholars; French scholars call it "a library on the wall"; just as one scholar sighed after seeing the Mogao Grottoes. Said: "Seeing the Lihuang Grottoes is equivalent to seeing the ancient civilization of the world."

Xianggao Grottoes is commonly known as the Thousand Buddha Cave. The number "thousand" here does not refer to a specific number, but refers to a lot. Because there are many caves with Buddhist statues and murals, it is commonly known as the "Thousand Buddha Cave". Buddha Cave". The name Mogao Grottoes first appeared in the inscription of Cave No. 423 of the Sui Dynasty. There are different opinions on the origin of its name. There are generally three theories: one is that the Feigao Grottoes were named after they were excavated high in the desert. In ancient Chinese, the word "mo" for "desert" and the word "mo" for "Mogao Caves" are Tongjia characters; secondly, documents unearthed from the Tibetan Scripture Cave and many Tang Dynasty documents record that in the Tang Dynasty, Shazhou Dunhuang County It is known as "Mogaoshan" and "Mogaoli". According to this research, Mingsha Mountain was also called Mogaoshan in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, so the grottoes were named after nearby villages and towns; thirdly, it is said in Sanskrit that "Mogao Mountain" The sound of "" means liberation, and "Mogao" is the transliteration of Sanskrit.

Since Dunhuang has been a place where the Han people and many ethnic minorities have gathered and lived together since the Han and Wei dynasties, the cultures of various ethnic groups meet and integrate here; Dunhuang is also the choke point from the Western Regions in the west to the Central Plains in the east. Since then, people have believed in Buddhism. Local officials, wealthy nobles, faithful men and women, and poor people have all used silver to dig caves, statues, and paintings as their own temples to support Buddha and Bodhisattva; merchants and envoys traveling on the ancient silk road Investments made by , monks, etc. in order to pray that they can rise safely from the Taklimakan Desert, or to obtain blessings and enter the kingdom of heaven after death. So on the cliffs of Mingsha Mountain, caves and niches, large and small, kept popping up.

As you can see, the green landowner in front is the Mogao Grottoes. It is backed by Mingsha Mountain and faces Sanwei Peak. The total length of the cave area is more than 1,600 meters from north to south. There are 492 existing caves of different sizes. Scattered up and down and densely covered on the cliff face, each cave has lifelike statues, graceful flying apsaras, exquisite murals, and exquisitely composed tiles, forming a Buddhist world full of religious atmosphere. The Mogao Grottoes were built in the second year of Jianyuan of the former Qin Dynasty, that is, 366 AD. They have gone through the Northern Liang, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia, Yuan and other dynasties. There are more than 45,000 murals in the existing caves. Square meters, there are more than 2,400 statues, the largest statue is more than 30 meters long, and the largest mural is about 50 square meters. These murals and statues reflect, to varying degrees, my country's society, production, life, transportation, architecture, art, music, dance, folk customs, religious beliefs, and ideological changes in different eras that lasted for thousands of years from the 4th century to the 14th century. Ethnic relations, Sino-foreign exchanges, etc. Among the three major grottoes in my country, the Mogao Grottoes are the oldest, longest-lasting, largest, and richest in content. It also has precious value in the history of world culture. It is known as "Human Culture Collection", "Image History Museum" and "World Gallery".