![]() ![]() Bringing these two bodies of material into conversation with one another enables a nuanced understanding of Dunhuang as a religious and artistic center, focusing in particular on the Mogao caves. For this reason, the study of Dunhuang art and material culture encompasses both objects held in museum and library collections worldwide as well as mural paintings and sculptures located in situ in the cave shrines. In addition to the mural paintings and inscriptions in the Mogao caves, more than 50,000 manuscripts and portable paintings were discovered in 1900 by the caretaker and Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu 王圓籙 from one cave, numbered Mogao cave 17, popularly though perhaps problematically known as the “library cave.” These objects were dispersed in the early 20th century to library and museum collections, the most prominent of which are the Stein collection in the British Museum, British Library, the National Museum of India, and the Pelliot collection in the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet and Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Mostly unadorned, the northern caves served as habitation chambers for monks. 460 CE (page 83) different from its earlier Indian counterparts -The overall effect of this colossus is now remote snd sutra less human than more sensuous expressions of earlier sculptures in India. To the north, 248 additional caves were carved. How is the colossal Seated Buddha from Cave 20, Yungang Datong, ShanxiProvince, Northern Wei Dynasty, c. They were painted with over 45,000 square meters of mural paintings and installed with more than 2,000 painted clay sculptures. From the 4th to the 14th centuries, 492 man-made caves were carved from the sandstone cliffs, stretching 1,680 meters from south to north. The colossal Buddha of Cave 96 is depicted at right. The most well-studied of these are the Mogao 莫高, or “peerless,” cave shrines, which are located 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang at the eastern edge of Mount Mingsha 鳴沙山 (Mountain of the Singing Sands). model methodology for the conservation of wall paintings solve. Seated Buddha at the central pillar in the North Cave is the largest and the earliest seated Buddha at the Xiangtangshan Caves. ![]() Four major groups of cave shrines were constructed in the Dunhuang region: the Mogao, Yulin, and Western Thousand Buddhas caves, and the Five Temples site. The status of Dunhuang as an important regional center for Buddhism is demonstrated by a wealth of paintings and manuscripts that provide crucial insights into the unfolding of religious praxis and developments in visual culture over many centuries.Ī few centuries after the establishment of Dunhuang as a military garrison, the construction of cave shrines in the area began. Over time, Dunhuang became an important hub for multicultural trade as well as for the transmission of commodities, ideas, and religions. In the 2nd century BCE, Dunhuang was established by the Chinese Han dynasty as a center for military operations and trade. The oasis city of Dunhuang lies at the eastern end of the southern Silk Routes, in Gansu Province in northwestern China. ![]()
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