Mogao Caves
A system of 500 Buddhist cave temples on the Silk Road.
The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples located 25 km southeast of Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road in Gansu province, China. They contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years, with the first caves dug out in 366 CE as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. Along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, they are one of the three famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China.
- location
- Dunhuang, Gansu province, China
- number_of_temples
- 500
- earliest_construction
- 366 CE
- latest_construction
- 14th century
- known_for
- Buddhist art spanning 1,000 years; Library Cave discovery
- field
- Buddhist art and archaeology
- other_names
- Thousand Buddha Grottoes, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, Dunhuang Caves
Lore & Background
The Mogao Caves were first constructed in the 4th century AD, when Dunhuang was under the Former Liang dynasty. According to a book written during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian, a Buddhist monk named Le Zun (also pronounced Yuezun) had a vision of a thousand Buddhas bathed in golden light at the site in 366 AD, inspiring him to build a cave. He was later joined by a second monk Faliang, and the site gradually grew; by the time of the Northern Liang, a small community of monks had formed. The earliest decorated caves remaining (caves 268, 272 and 275) were built and decorated between 421 and 439 CE, before the invasion of the Northern Wei.
Reader's Guide
The Mogao Caves are significant as a major repository of Buddhist art and a key site on the Silk Road, reflecting the religious and cultural crossroads of Dunhuang. The caves contain over 400,000 square feet of frescoes and sculptures, and were used as places of meditation, worship, and pilgrimage from the 4th to the 14th century. An important cache of documents was discovered in 1900 in the so-called 'Library Cave', which had been walled-up in the 11th century. The contents were subsequently dispersed around the world, with the largest collections now in Beijing, London, Paris, and Berlin. The International Dunhuang Programme coordinates scholarly work on these manuscripts. The caves are now a popular tourist destination, but visitor numbers are capped to aid preservation. The site escaped the persecution of Buddhists ordered by Emperor Wuzong in 845 as it was then under Tibetan control. After the Tang dynasty, the site declined, and construction ceased after the Yuan dynasty, but it remained a place of pilgrimage into the early 20th century.
Did You Know?
- The name 'Mogao' may mean 'peerless' (literally 'none higher') or 'high in the desert'.
- The Library Cave was discovered on 22 June 1900 by Taoist abbot Wang Yuanlu.
- The caves contain over 400,000 square feet of frescoes and sculptures.
- The site escaped the persecution of Buddhists in 845 because it was under Tibetan control.
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