Mogao Grottoes contact information: Tel: 0937-8869060 Address: 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province.

Introduction to Mogao Grottoes attractions:

Mogao Grottoes, commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave, is located at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, Gansu Province. Founded in the second year of Jianyuan of the former Qin Dynasty (AD 366), it has preserved 735 caves of various types from the Northern Liang, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia, and Yuan dynasties, which lasted for more than a thousand years. There are 492 caves with murals and colorful sculptures. There are 45,000 square meters of murals, more than 2,400 painted sculptures, and 5 wooden eaves of the Tang and Song Dynasties.

In 1900, more than 50,000 pieces of various documents and paintings from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Song Dynasty were discovered in the Sutra Cave (now Cave 17). The Mogao Grottoes are the largest, richest, most artistic, and best-preserved Buddhist cave temple in the world today. Chinese grotto art originated from India. Traditional Indian grotto statues are mainly stone sculptures. However, the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang are not suitable for carving because of the rock quality, so the statues are mainly clay sculptures and murals. The entire cave generally has round sculptures in the front, and then gradually fades into tall sculptures, shadow sculptures, and wall sculptures. Finally, with murals as the background, the two arts of sculpture and painting are integrated.

Mogao Grottoes had more than a thousand caves in the Tang Dynasty, and there are 492 existing caves, including 32 Wei Grottoes, 110 Sui Grottoes, 247 Tang Grottoes, 36 Five Dynasties Grottoes, 45 Song Grottoes, Yuan Dynasty Grottoes, The grotto has 8 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals, and 2,415 painted statues. The grotto is divided into five floors. In the cave now numbered "17", 56,000 precious cultural relics from the 4th to 14th centuries were discovered, thus forming a Dunhuang Studies, and also has the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute. The Mogao Grottoes are the largest existing "world art treasure house" and were listed as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in December 1987. The characteristics of Mogao Grottoes art are reflected in the organic combination of architecture, statues and murals. The structure of the caves can be divided into Zen caves, palace caves, pagoda temple caves, dome caves, shadow caves, etc.; the colored sculptures can be divided into round sculptures, relief sculptures, shadow sculptures, good deeds sculptures, etc.; the mural types can be divided into portrait paintings, sutra paintings and so on. Paintings, story paintings, Buddhist historical site paintings, architectural paintings, landscape paintings, offering paintings, animal paintings, decorative paintings and other different contents systematically reflect the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia, Yuan More than ten dynasties and various aspects of cultural exchanges between the East and the West have become rare cultural treasures for mankind.

The largest cave is more than 40 meters high and 30 meters square. The smallest one is not taller than a foot. The statues are all clay colored sculptures, including single and group statues. There are people in the middle of the Buddha statue, and disciples, Bodhisattvas, heavenly kings, and powerful men stand on both sides. The minimum is 3 bodies and the maximum is 11 bodies. The largest one is 33 meters and the smallest one is 10 centimeters. Most of the characters are expressed in exaggerated colors with different expressions. The contents of the murals include Buddha statues, Buddhist historical sites, sutras, myths, donors and other themes and decorative patterns. The oldest map, "Mount Wutai Map", is more than 40 square meters in size. From flowers and leaves, gods and Buddhas to "Travel of Zhang Yichao and his wife" which shows the activities of local historical figures at that time, the composition is exquisite and lifelike. The cave is magnificent and dazzling. If the pictures are arranged at a height of 2 meters, they can form a gallery with a length of 25 kilometers. It is the largest and richest grotto art treasure house in my country. Since the discovery of more than 50,000 volumes of religious and secular documents in the Mogao Grottoes in 1900, Dunhuang art has shocked the whole world. Due to ignorance, almost all these treasures were stolen abroad. Now, at the foot of Sanwei Mountain opposite the Mogao Grottoes, the Dunhuang Art Exhibition Center was built with donations from Japan and undertaken by the Dunhuang Academy. Parts of the original large caves were copied, making the viewing content of the Mogao Grottoes more colorful.