Mogao caves are built on the cliffs between Mingshao Mountain and Sanwei .Mountain to the southeast of Dunhuang, 1618 meters long in the direction from the south to the north. The building and carving started in the 2na year of Fuqin Jianyuan period of the Jin Dynasty (366 AD) and lasted for about one thousand years. All the dynasties during the one thousand years history participated in the building of the caves and the most active period is the Tang Dynasty. There are 45000 square meters of murals and 2000 colored sculptures survived. They are the rgest and best preserved collections of Buddhist cave arts and treasures in the world. Because Dunhuang was in a strategic point on the traditional Silk Road on the west frontier of China, it was an important junction for the exchange of people and culture between China and the western regions (xiyu).
The Dunhuang Mogao cave treasures include architectures, color sculptures, murals and as well as books and record. Its architectures, murals and sculptures have symbolized the Buddhist arts of China as three integrated parts. The colored sculptures and murals in the north Wei and west Wei periods (535 t0 556 AD) exemplify the highest achievement of early period of Dunhuang arts. There are 36 caves belonged to this period. Murals are painted around on all walls and ceiling as well as pillars supporting ceilings. Apart from a few decorative oil paintings mosT are to illustrate Buddhist legend stories and the birth of Buddha, and the cause and predestined relationship. There are many images of Bodhisattvas, figures of celestial beings and pictures of musicians and dancers. For example, Prince Sattva Feeds Himself to the Hungry Tigress in cave 254, Conversion of the 500 Robbers in cave 285, Buddha’s Preaching in cave 249, The Nine-colored Deer Saves the Drowning Man in cave 257 and the Buddha’s Life Stories in cave 290 are all delicately painted with magnificent and rigorous compositions, masterpieces of very high artistic value and great historic achievement.
The murals of Dunhuang of this period have still kept many original elements of Buddhist arts in terms of subjects portrayed and painting methods adopted. The Buddha’s Life and Jataka Stories are all directly from the Buddhist teaching classics. Similar murals and subjects are also found in caves in Indian. During this early stage of mural arts in China, the images and features from a foreign land were still kept unchanged as they y were viewed as representatives of gods and accepted as the spiritual essence of Buddhism. For example, Le half naked images of Buddha and various gods are prominently portrayed on these murals. Actually all symbolic postures have followed and copied their original Indian formulas. The “Indian coloring method” of using dark and light shades to depict a sense of three dimensional effects is another direct example that traditional Indian painting method has been adopted. The traditional postures and the images of half nakedness were regarded as essential part of Buddhist teachings and therefore were directly portrayed without any modification. However, the more trivial details in murals were more or less left to the imagination of individual painters who could paint according to their own experienc4 0f the hunting scenes are very much like the traditional Chinese paintings. They were consciously or unconsciously changing the more perceptual elements of Buddhist murals such as clothing and body features. Musicians, celestial beings, and minor Bodhisattvas had become half Chinese and half Indian. But in overall, the will to add true realism into the more conceptual composition of Buddhist murals were inhibited during the north Wei period because of the earnest respect and tremendous admiration for the religion of the foreign land. Consequently the mural figures of that period are very bold and unconstrained, and very conceptual and colors are generally very lucid. The overall effect is very decorative.
