DunHuang Mogao Caves are artificial caves in the
Singing Sand Mountain in DunHuang city, the series of man made caverns
is one of China’s most interesting and spiritually influential
places, and an important part of ancient Chinese Buddhist culture.
There are nearly 500 caverns within this network; which were used
from living quarters to massive worship halls; however only about
10% of these are available to the public to view. Historic evidence
suggests that the caves became crafted after a Buddhist Monk had a
vision of a thousand Buddha’s at the Moago Caves, this is why
now the caves are popularly known as ‘The Cave of a Thousand
Buddha’s’
Buddhism originated from India, and made it’s
way to China in approximately the 1st Century A.D, records suggest
that the likely source of this influence was from traders from central
Asia. It is believed that Buddha was formerly known as Prince Siddharta
Gautama of the Sakya Clan and was born around the year 563 B.C. in
Kapilavasu which is now called Nepal. The prince had been greatly
sheltered as a child by his father the King, and since the prince
had never before come across pain and suffering in people, he was
appalled when he finally crossed it’s path. He wondered how
people could be happy in such a world filled with pain. Through meditation
the Prince found a way of life based on compassion for others. He
also learnt self sacrifice for the benefit of others, until eventually
he became enlightened to a new way of looking at the world. He taught
these truths to others from then on; that everything in life is interconnected,
and that the pursuit of happiness and joy for selfish reasons should
end, and that it should instead be given to the world so others could
feel this compassion. These teachings or sutras were written down,
depicted in paintings and sculptures and passed on from generation
to generation of followers, and from there it flourished and has spread
over a great part of the world from east to west.
The caves started being crafted at about 366 A.D,
Shrines and temples were carved out of the very stone to provide
a sacred haven in which to lodge and meditate while following the
teachings of Buddha. The caves were used and decorated with around
2400 hand painted clay figures, and close to 45,000 square meters
of murals which depicted scenes of the different incarnations Buddha,
and these murals have been added to throughout the ages by various
artists who have been inspired by this amazing site. Many followers
believed that reproducing Buddha’s image many times or in
large sizes brought great merit and luck, so his statues and pictures
were reproduced thousands of times inside the caves.
Many of the statues are similar, though they show the Buddah with
different hand gestures (mudra). Each mudra represents things such
as teaching, protecting, and meditating. They also represent one
of six different reincarnations of Buddha as a human being. Followers
also believe that he has also been reincarnated as animals such
as a deer, monkey, birds, tigers, and elephants. These incarnations
as an animal are called Jutaku tales, and are widely popular in
this culture.
This massive network of caves preserved nearly a thousand years
of Buddhist architecture, clay sculpture, murals, and a library
of manuscripts and scrolls, dating from the 5th to the 14th centuries.
In the 19th century western explorers managed to barter for many
thousands of manuscripts that were written in Chinese, Tibetan,
Sanskrit, Sogdian and other tongues, and masses of silk paintings
from the caves. One of these manuscripts dated back to 868 A.D and
is considered one of the oldest printed books in the world. Many
of the other manuscripts that had been taken from the caves by the
westerners are now on show in New Delhi and in London. The rest
of the 50,000 odd manuscripts and scrolls were considered to be
in danger by the Chinese government and were ordered to be moved
securely to Beijing in the early 1900’s. In 1961 they officially
declared the caves to be a national monument, and now time and finances
are continually being secured to carry on with the restoration of
these ancient and delicate murals, and to preserve the cave structures
from further damage.
If you have an experience you would like
to share on visiting the Mogao Caves; if you have been part of a ceremony
there, or even to discuss your thoughts on the ancient site, then
please add your comments in our forums about your experiences, or
pop along to our free chat rooms and let us know what the Mogao Caves
means to you!
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