History of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes

The Mogao Grottoes were built during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. According to the book "Li Kerang Rebuilds the Monument of Mogao Grottoes" in Tang Dynasty, in 366 AD, two years before the founding of the Qin Dynasty, some monks were happy to pass by this mountain and suddenly saw the golden light shining like Buddha, so they 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".

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.

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 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.

Extended data:

The main values of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes:

1, historical value

The construction of Dunhuang Grottoes and its historical process, the long history of Dunhuang, the influential clans and surnames in the local area, and the relationship between Dunhuang and neighboring ethnic groups and the western regions are not or rarely recorded in history.

There are thousands of portraits of patrons in Dunhuang Grottoes, of which more than 1000 still have titles.

Can understand a lot of historical situations and historical clues.

2. Artistic value

The 1,000-year history of the construction of Dunhuang Grottoes coincides with the important development period of China's long-term separatist regime in the upper and lower Han Dynasties, its national integration and the unification of the north and the south, its peak in the Tang Dynasty and its decline.

3. Scientific and technological value

Dunhuang, as the transportation hub of China and the West, not only left the activity scene of business travel, but also left valuable images of transportation on murals.

They have cows, horses, camels, mules, donkeys, elephants, boats, boats, cars, sedan chairs, horses, chariots and so on.

There are different types of vehicles commonly used, such as "Tong Bi Niu Che", "Extreme Niu Che" and open shed Niu Che. Carriages include mule carts, camel carts, baby carriages and unicycles.