Brief introduction of Dunhuang Mogao grottoes

The Mogao Grottoes, also known as "Thousand Buddha Cave", is located on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City, and is one of the three artistic treasures of China grottoes. These caves were first dug in the second year of the former Qin Jianyuan (AD 366), and were later supplemented and repaired. Today, there are 492 grottoes, with 45,000 square meters of murals and 24 15 colored sculptures, which is the largest and richest grotto art treasure house in China. 1987 is listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO. The artistic features of Mogao Grottoes are mainly manifested in the organic combination of architecture, statues and murals. Cave-shaped organizational system is divided into Zen Cave, Palace Cave, Tower Temple Cave, Dome Cave and Shadow Cave. Colored plastics are divided into round plastics, floating plastics, shadow plastics and good plastics. Murals are divided into statue paintings, historical paintings, story paintings, Buddhist historical paintings, architectural paintings, landscape paintings, animal paintings, decorative paintings and other different contents, which systematically reflect all aspects of cultural exchanges between the East and the West in more than ten dynasties, such as Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia and Yuan Dynasty, and have become rare cultural treasures for mankind. Mogao Grottoes is also a veritable treasure house of cultural relics. More than 50,000 scriptures, documents, embroideries and portraits have been unearthed in the Tibetan Sutra Cave, which has high artistic value. Unfortunately, due to the ignorance of the Taoist king who presided over the Mogao Grottoes at that time, almost all these treasures were stolen abroad. Now, under the Sanxian Mountain opposite the Mogao Grottoes, the Dunhuang Research Institute has built the Dunhuang Art Exhibition Center, and copied some original large caves, making the viewing contents of tourists in the Mogao Grottoes more colorful.