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The Mogao Grottoes form an oasis city in the heart of the Gobi Desert. Painstakingly constructed over a thousand years (4^th - 14^th Centuries AD), it is a powerful symbol of Buddhist art and is home to the worlds largest and most significant collection of Buddhist sutras, paintings and sculptures.

Its caves are literally carved into the cliff face, and are studied extensively by historians and archaeologists because of the wealth of insight they provide about medieval China. All aspects of life and society are represented be it personal, public or religious. The level of cultural information available here has spawned a whole new field of study called "Dunhuangology"!

Most of the paintings can be divided into one of seven categories that include jataka stories that depict beneficence to Sakyamuni in his previous incarnations, sutras illustrating suffering and transmigration, and traditional Chinese mythology. While the religious art is mostly Buddhist, in one language or another, there are also some excellent examples of Taoist, Manichean and Confucian work in the collection.

Many caves were restored during the Yuan Dynasty. The murals depict various Indian mandalas and bodhisattvas. Some caves were decorated in the Tibetan style. During the Ming Dynasty, Dunhuang was abandoned, and the caves gradually faded into the sand of the Gobi desert until a Taoist priest discovered the treasure house in beginning of the 19th century.

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The Mogao Grottoes