★ UNESCO
World Heritage
World Heritage
📷 nhluoj · Pixabay
Where in the world
China
The site
The Mogao Caves, or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of some 500 rock-cut temples near the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang in Gansu province, China. First dug in 366 CE as places of Buddhist meditation and worship, they gathered a thousand years of Buddhist art before construction ceased in the 14th century. In 1900 a walled-up chamber known as the Library Cave yielded an important cache of ancient documents.
Field notes
- civilizations
- Imperial China
- types
- Cave painting · Temple
- occupied
- 366 CE — 1,400 CE
- country
- China
Notable finds
Renowned pieces unearthed at Mogao Caves — and where they are today
collectionDunhuang manuscripts
bookIrk Bitig
literary workWang ocheonchukguk jeon
paintingMogao Christian painting
manuscriptIncomplete Scripture of Manichaeism▸National Library of China
paintingTejaprabhā Buddha and the Five Planets▸British Museum
manuscriptDunhuang manuscript▸Bibliothèque nationale de France
Figures of this place
Laid to rest, born or died at Mogao Caves
⚱
