Why is Dunhuang particularly prosperous in history?

Mogao Grottoes, commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave, is located in Dunhuang at the western end of Hexi Corridor.

Founded in the pre-Qin period of the Sixteen Countries, after the Sixteen Countries, Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Five Dynasties, Xixia and Yuan Dynasties, it has formed a huge scale, with 735 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals and 24 15 clay sculptures. It is the largest and richest Buddhist art site in the world.

196 1 year, the Mogao grottoes were announced by the people of China and the State Council as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

1987, Mogao grottoes was listed as a world cultural heritage.

Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi, Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan, and Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui, Gansu are also called the four major grottoes in China.

These grottoes were built during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. According to the book "Li Kerang Rebuilds the Monument of Mogao Grottoes" in the Tang Dynasty, in 366 AD, two years before the founding of the Qin Dynasty, the monk happily passed by this mountain and suddenly saw the golden light shining like Buddha, so he dug the first cave on the rock wall.

Since then, Zen master Fa Liang and others have continued to build caves here to practice, which are called "desert grottoes", meaning "high places in the desert".

Later generations renamed it "Mogao Grottoes" because of the common "desert" and "Mo".

There is another saying: Buddhists say that it is impossible and impossible to build a Buddha cave because of its infinite merits. Mogao Grottoes means that there is no higher cultivation than building Buddha Grottoes.

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During the Northern Wei, Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties, the rulers believed in Buddhism, and the construction of grottoes was supported by princes and nobles, which developed rapidly.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with the prosperity of the Silk Road, the Mogao Grottoes flourished, and there were more than a thousand caves in Wu Zetian.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Dunhuang was occupied by Tubo and Guiyi Army successively, but the carving activities were not greatly affected.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Xixia and Yuan Dynasty, the Mogao Grottoes gradually declined, and only the caves of the previous dynasties were rebuilt, with few new buildings.

After the Yuan Dynasty, Dunhuang stopped opening caves and gradually became barren.

In the seventh year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (1528), Cargill was closed.

Maitreya Buddha on the ninth floor

The valley pass made Dunhuang a nomadic place in the frontier fortress.

In the fifty-seventh year of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (17 18), Xinjiang was settled, and in the first year of Yongzheng (1723), Shazhou Station was set up in Dunhuang, and in the third year (1725), it was changed to Shazhou Wei, and immigrants from Gansu provinces settled in Dunhuang and rebuilt Shazhou City.

In the twenty-five years of Qianlong (1760), Shazhouwei was changed to Dunhuang County, and Dunhuang economy began to recover.

The Mogao grottoes began to be noticed by people.

In the 26th year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1900), the Tibetan Sutra Cave that shocked the world was discovered.

Unfortunately, under the specific historical background of * * * corruption in the late Qing Dynasty and the invasion of China by western powers, shortly after the discovery of the cultural relics in the Tibetan Sutra Cave, western explorers such as British Stein, legal person Boscio, Japanese drunkard Lihua and Russian Odenburg came to Dunhuang one after another and defrauded a large number of cultural relics in the Tibetan Sutra Cave from the Taoist king by unfair means, resulting in the looting of cultural relics in the Tibetan Sutra Cave, and most of them were unfortunately scattered in Britain, France and Russia.