Spectacular Mogao grottoes in Dunhuang

Gwen HERAT

SCULPTURE: The oasis where the Mogao Grottoes, that was earlier known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, lie at the edge of easter side of the Migsha Province hill chain. This area is about 25 kms. south of the present-day Dunhuang city in the far west of Gansu Province, China.

The landscape of the main oasis of Dunhuang is barren and mostly covered by sand dunes. The climate is extremely dry and has fractional rainfall. The sand dunes and the dry climatic conditions contributed to the preservation of the Dunhuang Caves.

After undergoing political turmoils from time to time, Dunhuang witnessed 15 dynasti periods. After the collapse of the Han Empire, Dunhuang experienced successive waves of invasions.

The situation improved with the reunification of China under the Sui in 589-618 AD. With reduced internal political strains, the city became a prominent centre of Buddhist art and culture. Innumerable caves were excavated of painted and ornamented scriptures of art of unsurpassed qualities.

The dynasty invited art elements of other countries to influence their art. But things changed in 751 AD when Tibetans seized North West China and took control of Dunhung from 781-847 AD. Cave art at Dunhuang continued to prosper and when Song Dynasty reunited China, the period ensued to be one of the vigorous and dynamic periods in China.

There was a continued artistic activity at Dunhuang for more than a millennium mainly due to the relative stability of the social structure of the ruling elite there.

Dunhuang is the repository of two kinds of art treasures that of stucco sculptures and paintings. Dunhuang is famous for its preservation of the world's earliest manuscripts on paper and printed materials popularly known as 'Dunhuang Manuscripts.

These are dated from the 5th to the 11th centuries AD. There are a breath-taking 40,000 manuscripts on paper and are preserved in the museums and libraries of London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Beijing, Dunhuang and New Delhi. (I saw the ones in New Delhi).

Buddhist art

Travelling all the way from its land of origin to China, Buddhist art and Buddhism found a new home in Dunhuang which is enshrined in the Buddhist art of Mogao Grottoes in addition to thousand Buddhist caves around Dunhuang. Among them, the Mogao Grottoes sparkle magnificently beyond comparison.

The name 'Moagao Grottoes' or the Thousand Buddha caves is derived from a legend narrating the dream of a monk who dreamt a thousand Buddhas floating on a cloud over one side of the valley and hence the name.

Dunhuang which remained untouched and covered under sand dunes for more than 500 years, was re-discovered and the man responsible was Sir Marc Aurel Stein. He was a Hungarian by birth and a British by adoption. He was an expert in Sanskrit and Buddhist antiques.

After hearing of the archaeological importance and artistic value of Dunhuang treasures, he led an expedition and discovered a rare collection of manuscripts, paintings on paper, silk and ramie-wall paintings. He was followed by the French archaeologist, Paul Pelliot. The antiquities excavated by them are exhibited at The British Museum, London National Museum, New Delhi, Musee Guimet and Bibliotheque nationale, Paris.

There was a relatively unknown expedition by some Russian explorers to Dunhaung and its neighbourhood from 1898 to 1915. They collected valuable material from Dunhuang and also made extensive survey known only to themselves.

The caves had been inaccessible for some decades but now open to the public. The journey to Dunhuang is hard and arduous but do not prevent culture-minded people flocking every year. They experience the beauty, exquisiteness of the originals. It stimulates foreigners to compare and research as against their own art.

Mutual dialogue

Perhaps three great civilizations; India, China and Sri Lanka (though tiny in size but great in her own civilization) are bound by mutual dialogue for centuries as well as distinctively inspired through the spread of Buddhism. Pilgrims from each country visit each other. This resulted, over the centuries, trade routes being discovered for the flowering of creative energies.

The paintings and sculpture of the Dunhuang caves symbolises the cultural synergism of the Ajanta caves of India and Sigiriya frescoes of Sri Lanka. They all show the Buddhist heritage of these three countries.

While Sri Lankan culture lovers had not the opportunity to see the Mogao Grottoes unless they have travelled across to Dunhuang, India was determined to let her people see them and came up with the bright idea of asking the Chinese Government to re-create the grottoes along with Chinese cave murals painted by her talented artists at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in Delhi. I too was a visitor at this exhibition and it amazed me. I was wondering whether I was in India or China.

We too have our cultural relics and works of art preserved that is a testimony to our own civilization.

They are part of the precious wealth of our nation. Why cannot our government promote our culture abroad through our embassies? A recreation of the Sigiriya, the remains of Polonnaruwa, the twin-ponds of Anuradhapura, the Kandy temple of the sacred relic and the centuries-old Kandy Perahara etc. designed and crafted in fibre glass or any other medium and exhibited around the world, will awaken and marvel the nations about our historical glories and put Sri Lanka right on top of the map for tourists who will flock to see the originals in our land.

Except for the spinxs and the dunes in Egypt, nowhere have I seen the past glories as that in Sri Lanka and for a widely-travelled woman like me who is always in quest of art and culture of the countries visited, I can say Sri Lanka is ahead in her historical testimony.

Not even the caves of Dunhuang or the art treasure found in India (except the Taj Mahal) Sri Lanka has had a strong foundation. Not that I have overlooked the Golden Buddha in Japan or the Borobudur (thousand temples) in Indonesia. It is just that Sri Lanka is so small as against these vast countries, most of them bound by Buddhism that my beloved island is miles ahead in her ancient culture.

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