Dunhuang Favorites

Favorite thing: Being in the Silk Road, it was easy that silk would become part of the artistic materials used in Mogao.

You can find some marvellous detailed paintings on silk, with beautiful colors. Here is depicted a nobleman of those days, with delicate dressings that suggest an atmosphere of luxury and refinement....

Favorite thing: The caves are really monks cells, really small spaces carved on the rock. Don't think of them as natural huge caves with stalactites and so, but rather 5x5 carved cubes inside the rock, with all the walls painted (and the celings too) and some ocassional statue too.

You pass from one another by narrow steps on the rock walls.

Favorite thing: These painted statues are relly impressive. You can still see the colours on them, though they were originally painted in much brighter colors!

Some of them represent Buddhas, some Devils, Angels....

Favorite thing: Because the buddhist cave art and statues in the Mogao Grottoes are very sensitive to carbon dioxide and light, no photography is allowed and visitors are limited to visit a handful of caves only. This is to preserve them for future generations.

Favorite thing: The grottoes, also known as Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, preserve nearly a thousand years of Buddhist cave-temple architecture, clay sculpture, mural paintings, and manuscripts, dating from the 5th to the 14th centuries

Favorite thing: Its position at the intersection of two trade routes was what made Dun-huang flourish. The coming and going of horse and camel caravans carried new thoughts, ideas, arts and sciences to the East and West.

Fondest memory: Beijing -

Xi'an -

Lanzhou -


Dun Huang
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Tulfan -

Urumqi -

Ining -

Kazakstan





Dunhuang, a small city in Gansu Province, is located near the crossroads of the ancient Silk Road.






It is made famous largely by the Buddhist Grottoes, known as the Mogao Grottoes, which are one of the world?fs most important sites of ancient Buddhist culture.





The grottoes, also known as Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, preserve nearly a thousand years of Buddhist cave-temple architecture, clay sculpture, mural paintings, and manuscripts, dating from the 5th to the 14th centuries





Dun Huang is the peak of this tour. Probably there is no place in China that is so mysterious and rich in culture.







Dun-huang lies at the western end of the Hexi Corridor. The name Dunhuang originally meant 'prospering, flourishing'-- a hint that Dunhuang must once have been an important city.





Its position at the intersection of two trade routes was what made Dun-huang flourish. The coming and going of horse and camel caravans carried new thoughts, ideas, arts and sciences to the East and West.





The center of Dun Huang. In the fourth century a Buddhist monk had a vision of 1,000 Buddha, and began to carve grottoes into the sandstone cliff and fill them with Buddhist images.





Now we know these caves as The Muogao Caves, or MuoGao Grottoes. It later become a local tradition and here are now 482 caves with 4500 square meters of murals and 2500 sculptures.





These caves and the city itself were abandoned and forgotten in around the 11th century until its rediscovery in early 20th century.







softly, gently, nicely and comfortably.

Favorite thing: The Gobi Desert is all around Dunhuang. The place is a real oasis in this desertic endless landscapes, a bit monotonous but fascinating...