The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, are a UNESCO World Heritage site located near Dunhuang, China. These caves are renowned for their exquisite Buddhist art and murals that date back over a thousand years.
They were created by Buddhist monks as places of worship and meditation, showcasing a remarkable fusion of Chinese and Central Asian artistic styles. The caves house a vast collection of sculptures, paintings, and manuscripts, providing valuable insights into the history and development of Buddhism.
Here’s some photos from my trip to the caves; there are hundreds of them here! When you visit you will be placed with a group and a tour guide – it’s not possible to just wander around here on your own. The guides will show you into the caves, and unlocked different ones for your group.
They are very protective of the caves, and no photos or videos are actually allowed inside the cave either. You can see digital scans online, but it’s best to come visit the site and see it for yourself! 😉
I also learned about American Irene Vincent. In the summer of 1948, she went on her own pilgrimage to the caves of Dunhuang, which she wrote about:
‘In his secret heart almost everyone carries the name of some place on earth which he hopes to see before he dies… In 1939 I had chosen mine — the Thousand Buddha Caves of Tun Huang. The summer school of the University of Michigan offered that year an excellent course in Chinese art. I had spent three months at this heady banquet … After this hastily devoured—almost indigestible—feast, the memory of the Thousand Buddha Caves had remained to haunt and tantalize me. I never really expected to see them with my own eyes, however. The only westerners who had this good fortune seemed to be eminent scholars, under the wing of important organizations, who spent weeks travelling there in horse-carts, sacks of bullion concealed in their luggage.’
Extract from Irene Vongehr Vincent, The Sacred Oasis: Caves of the Thousand Buddhas Tun Huang. London: Faber and Faber 1953: 43. Reproduced by courtesy of Bronwen Vincent.
It was a remarkable place to visit, and so cool to imagine what it must’ve been like for Irene Vincent to visit in the late 1940s.
