The largest existing treasure house of Buddhist art in the world is the Dunhuang Grottoes.
The Dunhuang Grottoes, commonly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves, are known as the most valuable cultural discovery in the 20th century and the "Louvre of the East". They are located in Dunhuang at the west end of the Hexi Corridor and are famous for their exquisite murals and statues. World. It is the largest existing treasure house of Buddhist art in the world. It was built in the pre-Qin period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, and has gone through the construction of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Xixia, Yuan and other dynasties, forming a huge scale. It is the largest and richest Buddhist temple in the world. Art sanctuary.
The Buddhist Scripture Cave discovered in modern times contains more than 50,000 ancient cultural relics. From this, Dunhuang studies, a discipline specializing in the study of the classics in the Buddhist Scripture Cave and Dunhuang art, was derived. In 1961, it was announced as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In 1987, it was listed as a world cultural heritage. Dunhuang was an important town on the ancient Silk Road. The art treasures collected in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes are treasures for Sino-foreign exchanges.
The historical value and artistic value of Dunhuang Grottoes
Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes have a long history and rich cultural connotation, which can be traced back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty and went through the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Wei and Western Wei , Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and other ten dynasties, spanning a history of more than 1,600 years. During these historical periods, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes became an important dissemination center of Buddhist culture and art, leaving behind a large number of murals, sculptures, scriptures and other cultural heritage, reflecting the political, economic, cultural, religious and other aspects of ancient China. Historical changes have extremely high historical and cultural value.
The artistic value of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes lies in its integration of the essence of ancient Chinese Buddhist grotto art, integrating architecture, sculpture, murals, calligraphy and other art forms. Among them, murals are one of the most famous art forms in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, including a large number of figure paintings, landscape paintings, flower and bird paintings, etc., which vividly display all aspects of ancient Chinese social life. Sculpture is another outstanding representative of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and has high artistic and historical value.
The above content refers to Baidu Encyclopedia-Mogao Grottoes