Data of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes When was Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes founded?

1, Mogao Grottoes, commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave, is located in Dunhuang at the western end of Hexi Corridor. It was built in the years of Zhao Xuan and Fu Jian in the former Qin Dynasty, and has developed into a huge scale after the Northern Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Xixia and Yuan Dynasty, 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, Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province, and Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi Province are called the three major grottoes in China, and then Maijishan Grottoes are called the four major grottoes. On August 3rd, 2065438, a large-scale documentary "Dialogue between Mogao Grottoes and Angkor Wat" jointly produced by Dunhuang Research Institute and other units premiered at Dunhuang International Convention and Exhibition Center. With the theme of dialogue among Asian civilizations, the documentary shows people the wonderful connection between different civilizations in fate, culture and art.

In February 2020, in order to pay tribute to the medical workers who fought in the front line of anti-epidemic, after the scenic spot resumed operation, it was open to all medical workers in the country free of charge until the end of 2020. On May 10, the Mogao Grottoes reopened.

2, the construction evolution:

The Mogao Grottoes were built during the period of Fu Jian, Emperor of Zhao Xuan in Qin Dynasty. According to the book Li Kerang Rebuilds the Monument to the Mogao Grottoes in the Tang Dynasty, in 366 BC, two years after the founding of the Qin Dynasty, the monk Lezun passed by this mountain and suddenly saw the golden light shining like Buddha, so he dug the first grotto 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.

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.

Maitreya Buddha on the ninth floor

After the Yuan Dynasty, Dunhuang stopped opening caves and gradually became barren. In the seventh year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty (1528), Jiayuguan was closed, and Dunhuang became 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 the corrupt and incompetent government and the invasion of China by western powers in the late Qing Dynasty, shortly after the discovery of the cultural relics in the Tibetan Sutra Cave, western explorers such as Stein of Britain, Boscio of Japan, Zuizhou Lihua of Japan and Odenburg of Russia came to Dunhuang one after another and defrauded a large number of cultural relics in the Tibetan Sutra Cave from Taoist Wang by unfair means, resulting in the looting of all the cultural relics in the Tibetan Sutra Cave, and most of them were unfortunately scattered in Britain, France, Russia and Japan.