Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, known as "the big gallery in the desert", come to Dunhuang must see Mogao Grottoes, just like to Beijing must go to the Great Wall. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoMogao Grottoes, commonly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves, are famous for their exquisite murals and statues. Mogao Grottoes is located on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, facing the Danquan River, facing east, 1680 meters long from north to south, 50 meters high. The distribution of the caves is staggered and stacked, and there are up to five layers on the top and bottom. After nearly 1,000 years of continuous excavation, the Mogao Grottoes are the world's largest, richest and oldest Buddhist art treasure house integrating architecture, stone carving, mural painting and colored sculpture art in various periods.

According to historical records, in the second year of the former Qin Jianyuan (366 years), the monk Lexuan passed through this mountain, and suddenly saw the golden light shining, such as ten thousand Buddhas, so he dug the first cave on the rock wall. After that, Zen Master Faliang and others continued to build caves here to practice meditation, called "Mogao Grotto", which means "high place in the desert". In later generations, because "desert" and "Mo" were common, it was renamed "Mogao Grottoes". During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the rulers believed in Buddhism, and the construction of the grottoes was supported by the princes and nobles, and the development was relatively fast. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the prosperity of the Silk Road, the Mogao Grottoes were even more prosperous, and there were more than 1,000 caves in Wu Zetian. There are 735 caves from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty in Mogao Grottoes, which are divided into two areas: north and south. The southern area is the main body of the Mogao Grottoes, a place for monks to engage in religious activities, with 487 caves, all of which have murals or statues. There are 248 caves in the northern area, of which only 5 have murals or statues, while the others are places where monks practice, live and bury after death, and there are living facilities such as earthen kang, stove kang, flue, niche, and table lamp. A total of 492 caves in the two districts have murals and statues, with 45,000 square meters of murals and 2,415 clay colored sculptures. Colored sculptures are the main body of Dunhuang art, there are Buddha statues, Bodhisattva statues, disciple statues, as well as the Heavenly King, King Kong, Lux, God and so on. The forms of color sculpture are rich and colorful, including round plastic, floating plastic, shadow plastic, good karma plastic, etc. The highest is 34.5 meters, the smallest is only about 2 centimeters (good karma mud wood stone statue), the rich subject matter and superb craftsmanship, can be called the Buddhist colored sculpture museum. The cave murals are rich and colorful, with a variety of Buddhist scripture stories, mountain and river scenes, pavilions and other architectural paintings, landscape paintings, floral patterns, flying Buddha statues, and various scenes of production carried out by the working people at that time. Mogao Grottoes is a large-scale cave temple integrating painting, sculpture and architectural art, mainly with murals and statues as the supplement. Its grotto form mainly includes Zen cave, central tower pillar cave, hall cave, central Buddhist altar cave, four walls and three niche caves, big image cave, Nirvana cave and so on. The size of the caves varies greatly, with the largest cave 16 reaching 268 square meters and the smallest cave 37 not exceeding a footage. There is a wooden temple outside the cave, and there are corridors, plank roads, etc. The murals of Mogao Grottoes are painted on the four walls of the cave, the roof of the cave and the Buddha shrine, the content is broad and profound, there are mainly seven types of themes such as Buddha statues, Buddhist stories, Buddhist historical sites, scriptures, gods and monsters, donors, decorative patterns, etc., in addition, there are many paintings that show all aspects of social life such as hunting, farming, textile, transportation, war, construction, dance, marriage and funeral at that time. Some of these paintings are majestic and broad, and some are magnificent and gorgeous, reflecting the artistic styles and characteristics of different periods. It has been calculated that the murals could be arranged in a gallery as long as 25 kilometers if they were arranged at a height of 2 meters. On the murals of Mogao Grottoes, you can see beautiful flying in the sky everywhere. The Flying Heaven is a god who serves the Buddha and Shakti, and can sing and dance. On the wall, the flying sky flutters in the boundless universe, some hold lotus buds in their hands, soaring into the sky, some swoop down from the sky, like meteors, some pass through the heavy buildings, like swimming dragons, and some roll leisurely with the wind. The painter uses the unique winding long lines and the sense of stretching and harmony to create a beautiful and ethereal imaginary world for people. In the fiery colors and flying lines, in the enthusiastic and emotional depictions of the ideal kingdom of heaven by these painters in the northwest, we seem to feel their inexhaustible passion for riding and galloping wildly on the desert wasteland, and perhaps it is precisely this passion that gives birth to the unrestrained imagination power in the murals! The soil of the mountain cliff where the Mogao Grottoes are located is relatively soft, which is not suitable for making stone sculptures, so the statues of the Mogao Grottoes are all wooden clay sculptures except for the four big Buddhas that are stone fetal clay sculptures. The statues are all Buddhist gods and Buddha figures, arranged with a variety of combinations such as single statues and group portraits, the group portraits are generally centered on the Buddha, and the disciples, Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings, Luxes, etc. are served on both sides, less than 3 bodies, more than 11 bodies. The forms of color sculpture include round plastic, floating plastic, shadow plastic, good karma plastic, etc. The statues are exquisite, imaginative, and sophisticated, and they complement the murals perfectly. The main artistic achievements of the Mogao Grottoes are the statues and paintings. The statues here are clay sculptures, different from the stone statues of Yungang and Longmen. This is mainly because the stone of Sanwei Mountain is coarse and cannot be chiseled into a Buddha statue, so the craftsmen use clay sculptures. Since then, it has gone through the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Western Xia Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, and has been accumulated by artists and skilled craftsmen of all dynasties, so it also presents the style of different eras. The statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty are tall, with a broad forehead, a high nose bridge, slender eyebrows and eyes, wavy hair, and an exposed upper body, leaving a strong imprint of Indian art. The statues of the Sui Dynasty have plump faces, relatively low nose bridges, relatively enlarged ears, soft facial lines, and although the proportions of the whole body are not commensurate, they have been sinicized, reflecting a certain national style. During the Tang Dynasty, the sculpture of the Mogao Grottoes reached its peak. These sculptures completely abandon the traces of imitation, and the faces are gentle and kind, the expressions are solemn and calm, and the costumes are gorgeous. The statue of the Celestial King depicts the bodybuilding of a man, making people feel majestic, upright, brave and resolute, while the statue of the Bodhisattva is beautiful, with a round face, a smile at the corners of the mouth, a bare chest and arms, and a light dress, which resembles a woman in reality.

Each cave in Mogao Grottoes is composed of cave buildings, colored sculptures and murals. The architectural forms of caves mainly include Zen caves, central tower pillar caves, Buddhist shrine caves, Buddhist altar caves, large image caves, etc. The color sculptures combined with plastic painting mainly include Buddha, Bodhisattva, disciple, Heavenly King, Lux statue and so on. The murals are rich and broad, and are divided into seven categories, such as Buddhist statue paintings, Buddhist scripture story paintings, Buddhist history story paintings, scripture change paintings, gods and monster paintings, portraits of donors, and decorative patterns, which are the reflection of the historical image of ancient society. The exquisite painted sculptures and murals systematically reflect the artistic styles of each era and their inheritance. It has precious historical, artistic, and technological value. The beautiful scenery made Huang Yu and the others look in a daze.