Mogao Caves

The Mogao Caves, the most prominent cave complex among the grottoes in Dunhuang, are located on the cliffs at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain in the southeast of Dun- huang, Gansu Province. It is 1,680 meters long from north to south, 50 meters high, and contains over 700 cells, making it the world's largest and most culturally significant Buddhist grottoes.

The Mogao Caves, first constructed in A.D. 366 during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), were expanded over the course of about 1,000 years. These caves represent an art form that combines architecture, sculpture, and mural painting, show- casing the evolvement of Chinese grotto art, which blends the artistic traditions of the Han and Jin dynasties with those of the Northern and Southern dynasties (420-589) and the Tang (618-907) and Song (907-1279) dynasties together with im- ported and transformed artistic styles from India, Central Asia, and West Asia. The Dunhuang murals, painted with exquisite techniques and covering a wide range of themes, vividly depict various aspects of the ancient Chinese society, such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, rituals of marriage and burial, and trade and cultural exchanges along the ancient Silk Road, preserving valuable information for later generations. In mod- ern times, a library cave was discovered at the cave complex, which contains over 50,000 cultural artefacts such as Buddhist sutras, documents, works of embroidery, silk paintings, and ritual implements dating back to the 4th to 11th century. It became known as the "Encyclo- pedia of Medieval China". The rich meanings and unmatched value of the Dunhuang grottoes have drawn the attention of scholars around the world, and Dunhuang has emerged as an academic focus area.

The Mogao Caves are not only a treasure trove of ancient Chinese civilization but also an important testament to the exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations along the ancient Silk Road. The evolvement of these caves over the thousand years was directly related to such factors as religious practices, language and writing, literature and art, history, geography, technology, economic development, and ethnicity. They record exchanges across the Eurasian continent and the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia. In 1987, the Mogao Caves were included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

敦煌莫高窟

敦煌莫高窟是敦煌石窟群的代表窟群，位于甘肅省敦煌市東南的鳴沙山東麓斷崖上，南北長1680米，高50米，700多個洞窟分布高低錯落，是世界上現(xiàn)存規(guī)模最大、內(nèi)容最豐富的佛教石窟群。

莫高窟始建于十六國的前秦時期（366），經(jīng)歷代開鑿興建，前后延續(xù)約1000年。莫高窟作為建筑、雕塑、壁畫三者結(jié)合的立體藝術(shù)，其藝術(shù)形式既繼承了本土漢晉藝術(shù)傳統(tǒng)，吸收南北朝和唐宋美術(shù)風(fēng)格，又不斷接受、改造并融合域外印度、中亞和西亞的藝術(shù)風(fēng)格，是中國石窟藝術(shù)發(fā)展演變的一個縮影。敦煌壁畫技藝精湛，題材廣泛，生動記錄了古代社會生活的衣食住行、生老病死、婚喪嫁娶等民俗風(fēng)情場景，以及古絲綢之路上的貿(mào)易往來和文化交流活動，為后世保留了珍貴的圖像數(shù)據(jù)。近代以來，在莫高窟還發(fā)現(xiàn)了藏經(jīng)洞，從中出土了4至11世紀(jì)的佛教經(jīng)卷、社會文書、刺 繡、絹畫、法器等文物5萬余件，被譽為"中國中古時代的百科全書"。敦煌石窟和文獻(xiàn)的豐富內(nèi)涵與珍貴價值，受到世界各國學(xué)者的關(guān)注，并由此衍生出敦煌學(xué)研究。

敦煌莫高窟既是中國古代文明的藝術(shù)寶庫，也是古代絲綢之路上不同文明之間交流互鑒的重要見證。莫高窟的千年發(fā)展過程與宗教、語言文字、文學(xué)藝術(shù)、歷史地理、科技、經(jīng)濟(jì)、民族等有著直接的聯(lián)系，連接起歐亞大陸的交流史、遍及亞洲的佛教傳播史。1987年，敦煌莫高窟列入聯(lián)合國教科文組織世界文化遺產(chǎn)名錄。