The Dunhuang Grottoes are both a rare national treasure of China as well as a unique cultural heritage of all humankind. They stand out among art treasures of the world by virtue of their colossal size, long history and remarkable level of preservation, kaleidoscopic richness and variety in content, and consummate skills of the artists.

Since Dunhuang was the hub of cultural exchanges between China and the West along the Silk Road , the Dunhuang caves possess a special geographical and cultural significance. Dunhuang art is inevitably a result of a blend of multitudinous elements and styles, which retains China's cultural and art systems.

Brief History

Dunhuang, a small town at the edge of the Gobi Desert, is located in Gansu Province , which became the gateway to the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220). The Silk Road not only brought Dunhuang commercial prosperity but also the development of Buddhist art during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-533).

Legend has it that a monk named Yue Zun dug the first cave and also carved a Buddha statue into the sandstone cliff of Mingsha Mountain where the famous Mogao Grottoes are now located -- about 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang. Over 1,000 caves were carved out of cliffs between the fourth and 14th centuries. Dunhuang art began to decline in the 12th century and was ignored until the early years of the 20th century. Today, there are 492 caves remaining in the 1,600-meter-long cliff. The Mogao Grottoes are some of the best-preserved and most extensive collections of Buddhist paintings and sculptures in the world.

Dunhuang Manuscripts and Documents

About 60,000 paper manuscripts, printed documents and fragments -- now preserved in Beijing , Paris, London and St. Petersburg -- were found in a secret sealed-up cave discovered at the end of the 19th century. A sizeable chunk of these treasures are part of the Stein Collection at the British Library, including the world's earliest printed book, the Diamond Sutra (circa AD868). Most of the collection is available in surrogate form. The collection of Dunhuang Chinese manuscripts at the National Library of China comprises over 10,000 Chinese scrolls. The International Dunhuang Project was established in 1993 to promote the study and preservation of manuscripts and printed documents from Dunhuang and other central Asian sites via international cooperation. A joint study between the Dunhuang Academy and Japanese researchers was formed for the conservation of the wall paintings and statues.

Painted Statues and Flying Apsaras

Dunhuang has 2,415 painted statues and five wooden-structured caves. The Mogao Grottoes contain priceless paintings, sculptures, some 50,000 Buddhist scriptures, historical documents, textiles, and other relics that first stunned the world in the early 1900s.

The walls of the 492 Mogao Caves include frescoes that cover over 45,000 square meters. There are about 4,500 Flying Apsaras figures found in some 270 caves.

Feminization of the Bodhisattvas

In Indian caves, the proportions of the body, postures and facial expressions were all constructed in a realistic yet highly imaginative manner. The figures display a strong distinction in terms of gender, both in physique and disposition: The male figures have plump faces, moustaches and robust bodies while the female figures have round faces, big eyes, long eyebrows, thick lips, full breasts, slim waists, broad hips and bare feet. The sex organs of male and female figures are also clearly marked. Although Kucan figures inherited this style, they did not like to represent naked deities.

After entering China, the Indian Bodhisattvas lost their gender distinctions. The eight categories of supernatural beings after the Buddha also lacked distinctions in age and sex. This feature may be seen in the majority of early Dunhuang caves. On one hand, it conformed with the Buddhist preaching that in Buddhak tra there is no sexual distinctions, and on the other hand, it was also in line with the Confucian value system which shunned physiological differences between the sexes and regarded nudity as an affront to tradition and morality.
From the Sui Dynasty (581-618), the Bodhisattvas underwent a clear process of feminization. The faces of the deities became plump and charming. Greenish moustaches appeared over their lips, they had flat chests and elegant and graceful postures. Dao Xuan, the eminent monk-scholar of the early Tang Dynasty (618-907), observed: "During the Song and Qi (420-502) of the Southern Dynasty (420-589) Bodhisattvas had thick lips, high noses, long eyes, plump cheeks ... like strong men. From the Tang onwards, the Bodhisattvas began resembling female celestial musicians painted using soft strokes. Today, we compare palace maids with Bodhisattvas." The figures of the Bodhisattvas painted by Zhao Gongyou were colorful, soft and beautiful, with mysterious clothing and beautiful eyes, like those of court ladies.