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Painted Clay Figures
These are the main treasures of the Dunhuang Grottoes. The figures are in different forms, including round figures and relief figures. The tallest is 34.5 m high, while the smallest is only 2 cm. These painted clay figures show such a great variety of themes and subject matter, as well as advanced techniques, that the Mogao Grottoes are generally regarded as the world's leading museum of Buddhist painted clay figures.
Murals
The murals in the Mogao Grottoes display Buddhist sutras, natural scenery, buildings, mountain and water paintings, flower patterns, flying Apsaras (Buddhist fairies) and ancient farming and production scenes. There are 1,045 murals extant, with a total area of 45,000 sq. m. They are artistic records of historical changes and customs and traditions from the 4th to the 18th centuries.
Excavated Articles
In 1900, about 50,000 cultural relics were found in a sanctum sealed behind the northern wall of Grotto No. 16. These articles included Buddhist sutras, documents, embroidery works and paintings from the 4th to the 12th centuries. Apart from ancient Chinese documents, there were also documents in other ancient languages, including Tibetan, Sanskrit and Uygur. The subjects of these documents include religion, literature, contracts, ledgers and official files. This discovery, which attracted world attention, is of great research value for supplementing and emending ancient Chinese documents.
Buddhist Culture
The Sui Dynasty (518-618) was a golden age for Buddhism in Chinese history. And the Mogao Grottoes experienced their heyday of construction during this dynasty.
Born and brought up in a Buddhist nunnery, Emperor Yang Jian, founder of the Sui Dynasty, was an enthusiastic Buddhist. After he united the whole country, he made Buddhism the national religion. About 5,000 temples were built, thousands of Buddhist sculptures were carved, and there were some 500,000 Buddhist monks and nuns. His son Emperor Yang Guang was also keen on Buddhism. He had 1,000 copies of the Fahua Sutra published and established a school of Buddhism.
In this period, a large number of grottoes were carved at Mogao. The most common form of grotto dating from this dynasty is the inverted conical grotto. A typical example is the seven-layer conical tower in Grotto No. 303, converted from a central tower pillar. Murals in this period were freed from the limit of foreign arts and demonstrated a liberated dynamic creativity. Generally, they show three major features.
First, murals depicting how Buddhists underwent arduous training and endured humiliation for progress in this life receded, and murals depicting easy ways to become a Buddha and attain Paradise began to occupy prominent positions in the grottoes. Second, Avalokitesvara was no longer an accompanying figure for Sakyamuni Buddha. Instead, she was depicted separately and with more grandeur. The appearance of the separate Avalokitesvara marked progress in China's Buddhism. Third, as secularization of Buddhist art began to emerge, figures in murals in this period were more lifelike.
Editor: Xu Shenglan
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