A life-size replica of Cave 285 of the Mogao site, dating to the 6th century, on display at the Palace Museum in Beijing last year. (WANG KAIHAO / CHINA DAILY)
For centuries, ancient caravans and explorers from various civilizations traveled along the 1,000-kilometer-long Hexi Corridor in present-day Gansu province. The “West of the River” route was a vital artery of the Silk Road that, as its name indicates, connected the region by the Yellow River to the desert to the west.
Besides traders and adventurers, Buddhist monks also endured the hardships of life on the road. Perhaps traveling in solitude, accompanied only by their faith and inner peace, beginning around the 3rd century they endeavored to widely spread their religion. Today, there is a marvelous legacy of the fruits of their labors — the numerous Buddhist grottoes carved in the mountains.
In Dunhuang, to the western end of the Hexi Corridor, 492 grottoes with exquisite murals and statues ranging from the 4th to 14th centuries in the Mogao Caves are like an encyclopedia in stone telling the legends of numerous peoples of the Silk Road. Meanwhile, near its eastern edge, the Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui display beautiful smiling faces that bestow human emotion on the solemnity of deities.
Both sites are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
There are about 200 extant Buddhist grotto sites in Gansu. Most of them are situated along the Hexi Corridor.
“At the global level, major sites like Mogao and Maijishan, together with the hundreds of smaller cave complexes along the Hexi Corridor, all preserve a remarkable legacy of cultural interaction and human creativity over the past 1,600 years,” said Neil Schmid, an American Sinologist and a researcher with the Dunhuang Academy, the prestigious research institution based at the Mogao site that also oversees several other grotto complexes along the Hexi Corridor.
In 1987, Schmid, then a student, went to the Mogao Caves as a tourist for the first time. Enthralled by the cultural wonder, Schmid switched the focus of his studies and developed into an acclaimed scholar on the Silk Road and, in particular, the visual culture of Buddhism. In 2018, he became the first full-time overseas researcher in the 78-year-old history of the Dunhuang Academy.
“One might be tempted to compare locations in the West, say, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, to the Mogao Caves — each is a world-renowned, sacred site with its own exquisite features and distinct history,” Schmid said. “But a fundamental difference is that Mogao, like other Gansu grotto complexes, lies directly on an important economic and cultural trade route across Eurasia.
“Because of that exceptional geographical position, not only did these sites develop within a complex cultural matrix, they were also obliged to adapt and evolve with changes in religious practices, doctrines, and artistic styles over hundreds of years, resulting in the uniquely layered heritage sites that we have today.”
Mural fragments dating to the Northern Liang kingdom (397-439) from the Tiantishan Grottoes in Gansu province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
According to Schmid, rock temples and caves were originally an Indian phenomenon that spread across the Pamirs, through the areas in today’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and then into Gansu. For the first few centuries of Buddhism’s entry into China, the primary route for the religion was along the Silk Road to the central plains.
The religion came in successive waves, each carrying diverse elements from India, where Buddhism was born, and the cultures it passed through.
“Hexi cave sites then are a remarkable compendium — and in fact some of the only historical materials we have — of all these various waves and the traces they left behind,” said Schmid. “Styles became blended and localized. The aesthetics of cave sites increasingly oriented to the central plains during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).”
If time could really be turned back 1,600 years, people would probably find the Hexi Corridor was not a romantic art gallery as people may perceive it today. The land which has been wracked by continuous wars was enduring one of the darkest eras of northern China in ancient times, the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304-439). The population sharply declined, and one kingdom was soon conquered by another in this time of pandemonium.
Nonetheless, Juqu Mengxun, a nomadic leader who seized the throne of Northern Liang kingdom (397-439) in 401, seemed to find in Buddhism the cure to appease suffering. He is often credited with being the initiator of the first large-scale cave projects that grace the Hexi Corridor, according to documentation.
In Schmid’s opinion, Juqu’s motivation for sponsoring the cave building was multifold. Buddhism was a source of spirituality, moral guidance and merit, but it was also a source of magical and political power, and of course prestige.
By attracting famous monks, sponsoring the translation of scriptures, and building monasteries and cave temples, Juqu and his kingdom gained strategic authority and power, which, the Sinologist notes, were much-needed given the kingdom’s rivalries with nearby realms.
Tiantishan Grottoes of Wuwei in the Hexi Corridor were widely speculated to be where Juqu’s caves were, with findings in recent decades providing crucial clues.
In 1959, construction of a dam was planned in front of Tiantishan Grottoes. To save the murals from possible inundation, they were all relocated to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province. There, a piece of Northern Liang kingdom mural was found beneath the repainted surface done centuries later.
Mural fragments dating to the Northern Liang kingdom (397-439) from the Tiantishan Grottoes in Gansu province. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
According to Liu Zhi, director of the Tiantishan Grottoes Protection and Research Institute, during restoration of the relocated mural pieces from 2015 to last year, several more Northern Liang murals have been discovered. The relocated murals have now returned to Wuwei.
“The flying deities (called feitian in Chinese) in these murals sometimes feel ‘clumsy’ compared with the exquisite fairy-like images in later periods of history,” Liu said. “But their coloring, lines, shading, and expression of emotions are indeed of very high skill. They perfectly reflect the artistic style of Buddhist art in its earliest stage.”
Following the early grottoes of the Northern Liang era, grotto building began to flourish in Hexi, and then elsewhere in China, as they were particularly favored by rulers. We thus see the royal projects of Yungang Grottoes in Shanxi province and Longmen Grottoes in Henan province.
People today may imagine the scenes of pilgrimages to the Buddhist temples and monasteries along the Hexi Corridor, but these have been lost to time. No such structures from that early period can now be seen from above the ground in the region.
“Thus, one of the great advantages of grottoes built in rock and stone is that they declare the piety and power of their patrons for eternity,” Schmid said. “In this sense, Hexi grottoes are precious repositories of a rich cultural transmission that no longer exists elsewhere.”
Standing in the Mogao Caves and feeling the chemistry among the different elements from various civilizations even within one image, visitors may, like Schmid, easily be captivated by those ancient times.
In Schmid’s eyes, Hexi grottoes remind people to think that historical and cultural diversity is as important as biodiversity for the health of our species. “Approaching these sites allows people to explore that heritage and creativity, in everything ranging from something unassuming, such as the diversity of color palettes, to the artistry of the murals and statues, the history and ideas presented, or to the variegated interpretations of space and time,” he said.
“All of them provide new ways of seeing our world and inspiration for our own creativity and imagination.”
Working by candlelight, those unnamed painters in the small caves of Mogao might have wondered about who would look upon their work in the future. They would not have envisioned smartphone-toting visitors of today. But the treasure trove of art they have left behind enables us to catch glimpses of those who traveled the ancient route of the Silk Road then. Although the murals on the rock have faded, they still color people’s minds.
Ma Jingna contributed to the story.
