Colossal buddha cave 20 movie#

The experience left an indelible mark and I returned to Dunhuang and the Mogao caves annually. I returned for days and spent hours inside many caves, studying and admiring the craftsmanship and devotion that went into creating the cave-temple architecture, wall paintings and sculptures. Once my eyes adjusted and the decoration came into focus, it was clear that the artistry was of a magnitude beyond description.

For pilgrims in ancient times, leaving the lush oasis behind and taking a camel or donkey cart to the cave temples, which are tucked into the side of a sandstone cliff across a river, was a metaphor for leaving the material world behind and entering a sacred space.Įntering the caves was an awe-inspiring experience. The approach to the caves is part of the magic of this place. I spent over one week in Dunhuang and ventured out to the caves daily, hitching a ride with farmers through the dry landscape, with large sand dunes in the distance. From Xi’an, it took me about two weeks to reach Dunhuang after passing through the Hexi Corridor, which forms the natural boundaries of Gansu Province, flanked by snowcapped mountains and desert. China was opening up and the economy was developing, but it really felt like going back in time in this remote part of China, where few people traveled. Transportation was limited to very crowded coal-fueled trains, old trucks and buses. I set out on a three-month journey overland from Beijing to Pakistan, which took me to all the historical Silk Road sites northwest of Xi’an. The first time I visited the Mogao cave temples was in 1989.

They were accidentally discovered in 1900 by a self-appointed caretaker of the caves, one Taoist priest named Abbot Wang, who was eager to sell the finds from the cache to finance a refurbishing of some of the caves, which had been abandoned for centuries and had filled with sand. Hidden inside a cave was a cache of thousands of Buddhist paintings, woodblock prints, ancient Buddhist texts, documents written in languages that no longer exist, and records of daily life. Due to the dry climate and because it was all but forgotten, the wall paintings and sculptures have remained well preserved. This extraordinary site comprises 492 man-hewn caves decorated with vibrant murals and sculptures, and an additional 248 undecorated caves that were used as living quarters for the Buddhist clergy and artists.

Of all the excavated sites and unearthed objects on the Silk Road, Mogao was the greatest treasure. Photo courtesy of Freer/Sackler, The Smithsonian’s Museums of Asian Art Indeed, the intrigue and adventures are brought to life in Peter Hopkirk’s book Foreign Devils on the Silk Road.

Colossal buddha cave 20 movie#

A race ensued to rediscover the “lost” Buddhist oases kingdoms surrounding the northern and southern periphery of this desertscape that reads like a movie script. Archaeologists, art historians and explorers became the ideal agents for the British and Russians engaged in The Great Game of vying for power in Central Asia, especially in the Taklamakan Desert region.

Then, in the early 20th century, Dunhuang was back on the map again. Prior to the recent flourishing of tourism in Dunhuang, the caves had been long forgotten after the 14th century, mainly because the land trade routes shifted to sea routes.

The Mogao caves, located 16 miles (25 km) outside of the oasis of Dunhuang, became a visual repository of the religious, artistic, economic, political and social life of the region, illustrated in wall paintings, portrayed in sculptures, and reflected in objects and documents found inside the caves. From the fourth to the 14th century, Dunhuang evolved into a crossroads of humanity thanks to its strategic geographic position. This UNESCO World Heritage site is testimony to a thousand years of rich cultural and artistic exchanges, Buddhist devotion, wealth and patronage. Nine-story pagoda and cave #96 housing a colossal Buddha from the Tang Dynasty (695 CE).