Walking the Wall

The Mogao Caves are a reminder that the Silk Road was not simply an important trade route, it was also an avenue for less material exchange. In the second, third and fourth centuries AD, Buddhist monks accompanied traders from India on their Silk Road treks and spread their teachings through China. In 366 AD, a local monk excavated a cave temple for meditation in the cliffs along a river about 25 kilometres southeast of Dunhuang.

Religion and commerce were entwined at Dunhuang, and for the next thousand years rich merchants funded the excavation of additional caves, as well as the painting of murals and the construction of elaborate altars and statues within the caves. Today there are 735 caves at Mogao containing 45,000 square metres of murals and over 240 painted sculptures. It is considered the greatest collection of Buddhist art in China.

Access to the caves is strictly controlled to ensure their preservation, but with a guide you can tour between 12 and 15 of them.

Inside there is enough variety and spectacle to impress the most naïve of tourists (like us) or the most jaded museum hound. Most caves seem to be about 6-8 metres tall, some with A-frame ceilings, some with inverted funnels, all constructed to ensure the structural integrity of the cliffside.

Along the cave walls there are vast murals. Some are elaborate storyboards depicting events in the life of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha. In other caves there are thousands of tiny Buddha images, each identical in size but with tiny variations in facial expression or pose. Huge painted statues of the Buddha flanked by graceful bodhisattvas sit upon the altars. Carved into the back wall of one cave there is a 34.5 metre high statue of a Buddha, which was commissioned by Wu Zetian, the only female empress in Chinese history.

No photography is allowed inside, as the flashes needed to light the dim interiors degrade the paintings. However, it is possible to photograph a few faded murals outside the entrances to the caves. The images we’ve posted below cannot even begin to hint at the splendour of the artwork within the caves, but we hope you’ll enjoy them.

Flying apsaras are divine dancers and musicians who serve and protect the Buddha

Paintings on the caves’ outer walls have been degraded by time

Apsara above a wooden structure from the Song Dynasty (907-1276)