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August 18, 2004
mogao caves
stumbled onto this early last year as i was reading about the silk road route. on to the facts.
facts:
- caves/grottoes are in dunhuang, china. comprises of 492 caves
- part of the silk road route, it is at the eastern edge of Taklimakan Desert. water found in this oasis is snow melted from Qilian Mountains
- nicknamed The Caves of A Thousand Buddhas
- mural on the walls cover 450,000 square feet
- there are 415 hand painted clay sculptures
- it's now on the list of UNESCO's World Natural & Cultural Heritage Site
- the murals on the walls have images of apsaras, musicians, buddhas, warriors, potraits of donors, auspicious symbols and decorative designs
- there is a hidden cache in one chamber filled with 50,000 rare scriptures, believed to be hidden by monks in the 11th century. comprises of ancient manuscripts in sanskrit, tibetan, uighur, chinese and other languages
- the murals depict many stories and fables (google them out)
- legend has it that the cave was initiated by a monk who was on a pilgrimage to india when he saw rays of light in the cliffs, which inspired him to carve the cave to honour buddha. other pilgrims followed his example, each would stop there to meditate, carve/draw a tribute, then continue their journey
enough facts. onto pictures, here are some of my favs :
these are outlines of the paintings & sculptures found in the caves. thought the third one was cute :)
an actual painting plus an example of the outline
sculptures
more paintings. a lot of them are apsaras (indian celestial beings)
love the colour combi for this, striking and tribal
quite a native feel here too.great backdrop for one wall of a living room donyathink?
swirling heavenly bodies amidst a calm meditating buddha. lovely.
posted by nyx at August 18, 2004 11:46 AM
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