Mogao Caves(2) Copy

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CAVE TEMPLES OF

aoArt and Historv on the Silk Road

Roderick WhitfieldSusan WhitfieldNeville AgnewPhotography of the Mogao caves byLois Connerarid Wu [ianThe" Getty Conservation Instituteand the J. Paul Getty MuseumL [JsAnge ies , Z "" '.:;J

. . 111


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thousand miles to the east. Nearby lay thewesternmost stretches of the Great Wall,which at this time was built not of stonebut of stamped earth and brush. The garri-son defended the region against the neigh-boring Xiongnu-fierce nomads from thecentral Asian steppes whose incursionsfrom the north had inspired the construc-tion of the Great Wall some hundred yearsearlier. Probably ancestors of the Huns, .

, these mounted bowmen would swoop down., on farmsteads "like flocksof birds," kill andplunder, then vanish 'into the vast lands theyhad come from.' Soldiers manning watch-towers would light signal fires to, warnof the approaching nomad armies-hencethe name Dunhuang, which means "blazingbeacon" and refers to the town's original

function as a frontier outpost of theChinese empire.

Exasperated by the constant raids ofthe Xiongnu, the Chinese emperor Wudihad sent an emissary named Zhang Qianwest in 139 B.C.E. to enlist the help of othercentral Asian tribes. While that part of themission failed, Zhang journeyed almostto the edge of the Greek world, returningthirteen years later bearing news of coun-tries hitherto unknown-Bactria, Persia,Ferghana-in the lands to the west.Ferghana, he reported, was a country ofvineyards and fortified cities, whereChinese silk was prized and where therewere heavenly horses that sweated blood.In 104 B.C.E.Wudi mounted a militarycampaign. The first force sent west

m:a.c.E. Ouilhuang~ : . < i ~ r a b l l s h ' e das\~!!it~o~tP~!i 10 '~g~rd 'ren lT er ',~~ga)i1~1longhu.

105 1I.c.LCh~eseprincess semro r n a r r v, i \J r e lg n rU l e r 'J i a . ss ~ , sthrough Dunhuang on

, h e r w ay west.

cil. IO~B.,C.E. Aher.initialde'eaT. Chinese'armyseis olHrom Dunhuang and marches'arhit~Western Regrcins;SlIk'Roadtradingroutes f~r.hej- dev~lop.

88B.i:.E.China establishesDunhuangPrefecrure.

113

II

Scene from a muralshowing the Chines eemperor Wudi dis-patching his emissary,General Zhang Qian,to th e Western Reg ion sto seek ass i s ta nce inthe war against th enomads. This mission,which las ted somethirteen years, spurredt he g TOwt h o f the SilkR oa d. C ave 323, HighTang dynasty.Pi,ato by S


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12 THE BLAZiNG BEAC,?N

The S il k R oad . Ast he CaraVQ11ou te leftChina, it pas s edth ro ug h th e Hexiregion, wes t of theY e ll ow R iv er , b e fo rebeginning the arduousd e se r t s ta g e s of th ejourney .

incurred heavy losses. After retreating tothe just-established post of Dunhuangfor reinforcements, the army, now sixtythousand strong, set off again," Itmarchedmore than a thousand miles, can uennerghana an en mg mese control

far into the Wester;]:eglOns.- New miss1mts woulurotrow, andwith them came diplomacy and commerce.The network of trading routes that cameto be known as the Silk Road began in theChinese capital Chang'an, After wendingwest through Dunhuang, the route forkedinto northern and southern branches,skirting the fiercest deserts before rejoin-ing at Kashgar to climb into the majesticPamirs, the so-called Roof of the World.

Three Kingdoms, Wes1ern lin, Sixteen Kingdoms (220-~39)" I

From there, branches headed south toIndia and north across the Russian steppe;the main track descended across suchempires as Persia and Parthia to the shoresof the Mediterranean, and itcontinuedfrom there by sea on to Rome. The landroute covered more than four thousandmiles, much of it through some of thebitterest desert on earth.

Most forbidding was the Taklamakan,known in Chinese as Liusha, the FlowingSands. Travelers who did not die of thirstor starvation might be engulfed by shiftingdunes, scoured by fearsome sandstormscalled burans, or driven mad by hallucina-tions. Marco Polo, who claimed to havepassed through the Taklamakan in the

336.D un hu an g "p","sesfJlroconrroltll.: "~ t : ~ ~ a p g366 The "monkYuezuil"dlgs,"edita~lion cavaln diff~!!.1oga~i1hemonk";P.iuati~dlgsanolner.

Before 385 More t hanten:,housaildlicusenoldsmoved" from south~i:n"Chlnat oO ~ n~ ~ an gc !is tri ~." " "

386 FamousKuchean translarer monk"Kumarajivi"prob~hi passes 'hro~gh --.OU:nhuatig;111,~orhe arriVes 10great .}~clalm~:Ch)n~secapi~al """.

" 11 d..; . . . . . . . .


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Merchant travel on theSilk Road was profit-able but perilous.Bandits have forcedthese traders to unloadtheir beasts. However.the merchants canobtain their freedomby invoking the nameof the bodhisattvaGuanyin. Cave 45.High Tang dynasty.PhDIO by Loi s CD nn ,r , J 99 5

surrounding mountains, along a doublerosary of cultivated oases."; These oases,irrigated by the glacial melt streams flow-ing down from the mountain ranges thatring the Taklarnakan, were the key to theSilk Road's existence. Situated a few days'march from each other, they offered respitefrom the elements as well as from maraud-ing nomads and bands of murderousbrigands who lurked along the way. Ascommerce increased, these oases grew intoprosperous settlements, with a few, such as

Turfan and Kucha, eventually developinginto important kingdoms.

Fed by the waters of the Qilian rangeand protected by the armies of Han China,the military post of Dunhuang blossomedinto a prosperous town. Itwas encircled bywalls and surrounded by wheat fields andfruit orchards. There were inns to accom-modate travelers, stables for their horsesand camels, and open-air markets crowdedwith goods of every sort. Government studfarms bred horses for the imperialcourier

. .. :~71"-99i ludd"hisl-ca,fe"scut aICi:~95 NorrhernVtel'capl- '5Z3 u!l1fRong.~em ber.o r _ _ m NOr(hel}'Weispltts mto 'Ve~.len1 _ ; ~ 8 ' : : - ; 3 { . , f : . : : . : : : : i < : . : ' j ~ f i ~ ~ ~ . ' ~ ~ ' f : J ' l ? ' C ~ ! ! i : n . w 7 1 . ._'lal.n\p '(~sroluo"'1~ngon' . . Northern W ellm perlal fam ilv . ; . ( s3 5~ 57 ) 3 1 1dEaslern W el 1 5 3 5 ' ; ' 5 0 ) . " . , :c a v e2 8 S ' < ; '; .> ;O '- ' . "i ; ~ ; : . r ; i i ~ t ~ 1 : ~ t $ . ! ! ~ ~ . . . .~ ~ t . 3 ~ . ~ . : 1 ~ . ~ _ : . i . i ~ ~ ~ . ~' 1... ~ : f.. ~ ' : ~ ~ ~ 1 : ; I l ~ ~ . ; 6 ~ ~ . : . ; _ ~ ~ : . -. ~ . ~ : . . ~ . " . :. .: " . ~. ~ _ :_, . : . : . b _ ~ _ a ~ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ . ~..:.,;e.~.::.. .. . . : : . ~ ' : . : . , a. . .. ~ , . _ . ~. ' . : . ~. .. O . :.: 5 . _ , . '. " . . . : , . . ' . ~ , . . : . : : ' _ ._ . . . : : . . . : . . .. . : . :. . . .. ' . ' . .: . : :. . C :i: : , : ' . . .. : _ . . ; : _ - : ; . ' , ; _ . :. . . .. . . . . . . _ ~ : ~ , . . , ~ ' . ' : , . ' . ~ :. . : ~ : . , . ; . ~ ~. : . . : . ~ _. . : . ' . , . : . , ~ '. . . .:. . . . . . . , i _ : . ~ . : . '. : . C . : _ : , . . . . . . i l . : _ , .: . : . . : ~ : . ; : . ._i. _: . : , ~ ~ :~ :_: _ ..;:. . .. . _ . , : . ' . : ~. . f . ~ _ ~ . . . _ : _.. .;. :. . ~ . :. . , . : . ~. . :.:,.. : . ; : : _ ....!..; t ( ~ ; i : ; ! ; : ' ; ; J ; . ~ f ~ ; : ' L ;, ' , , , . ' . . . . ' , ",>:


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T:H E B LAZIN G lIEACON 15

service. In the fall, roadside stalls would be. piled high with fragrant melons, pomegran-ates, and peaches. Among the travelersthronging the streets were nomadic horsetraders from the Gobi; merchants fromSamarkand trading in jade from Khotan andChinese silk; and itinerant dance troupesfrom India performing in the marketplaces.

Indeed, during the Silk Road'sthousand-year heyday, every imaginableluxury passed through Dunhuang alongthe great trading network. Merchant

caravans heading west from China carriedsilk, furs, ceramics, jade, and spices; thoseheading east brought linen, ivory] gems,and gold. Many other items were traded aswell, from oranges and lemons to peacocks,ostriches, and the famous "blood-sweatinghorses" froni Ferghana. Few merchantstraveled the route's full length; goods wereusually traded along by a succession of mid-dlemen based in the oasis towns.

Material goods] however] were not theonly commodity to travel along the trading

Merchant caravan nearMiran, on the southernarm of the old SilkRoad. The merchants'style of travel wouldhave changed littlesince the heyday of thegreat desert tradingroutes, more than onethousand years earlier.Phara ra ke n in 19a7.B y pe rm is sion afT he B rir" hLi~rary.Ste in pho! /] 39:1 .126(l50)

& . . ,'p S51.,-81.N9nhemZhou~ : 'd Y ; ; is iy 'sui:ieedsW~iem( W e U r i ti c ih h ~ n J C h r n a ; 1 DiJ~h ~a~g-~o ;hestli ld~fll 'f : ' co~tfQi;' tave 29,siiui;t;'-l:- ~ + - ,_ : " r -" .- '"

;." ..


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routes: ideas. artistic styles, and religiousbeliefs were also exchanged between onecivilization and another. Indian and Greekinfluences made their way into centralAsian and Chinese art. Nestorian Christians,Manichaeans, Jews, and Zoroastrians car-ried their religions from western Asia to thekingdoms of the Silk Road. And Buddhismwas borne by a steady stream of monksand missionaries north from its birthplacein India, east with the caravans, throughthe desert portal of Dunhuang, and sointo China.

Buddhism's arrival in China has overthe centuries been recounted in various leg-

Indian monk Dharrnagupra passes.H~uU!:n'I.J'UllJ'Udr,gQn l s . . . ( . i y to capltal,,"'I,..r,ih".lran.I,"", Buddhist lexlS.

Ica. 600 founding01 Cen lrafTlhe IanKingdom. '

.' . . .

ends. According to one of the most vener-ated versions, a radiant figure appeared in adream of the first-century Han emperorMingdi. When consulted the next morning,his advisers decided that this mysteriousapparition must have been the Buddha,founder of a religion they had heard of inthe Western Regions, who had attained sal-vation and whose golden body was able tofly. The emperor's envoys, sent to learn ofthis sage's teachings, returned bearingcopies of the Buddhist scriptures.

Whatever the original inspiration,important Buddhist civilizations developedin a number of Silk Road kingdoms, and by

601Sui emperor sendsmonks carrvlng Incense andsacred relicsrolhlrll( pre-fectures olamplre, Induding" Diinhua:n'g~ .' .

Two Buddha statues ana boat' are welcomedby thei~jollowers,who "believe that theBuddhas could abatethe wind 50 that thewaves would ber:omecalm:" In the tumul-tllOUS period [allowing'the collapse of theHan dynasty, themural suggests, Bud-dhism offered spiritualsolace that Daoism andother religions couldnot provide. Cave323,High Tang dynasty.PhotD by Lois Conn." 1995

609 S U I emperor makes wasternrour : envoys f~om TWenty-sevenWeSlern Asian kingdoms pass.rhrough Dim~uangclli Jnek ~V10Imperial a~dJr inc :e ar Zhangye.

t,.

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the first centuries C.E., the new religion hadbegun to make inroads into China as well.China's fragmentation following the col-lapse of the Han dynasty in220 ushered ina 350-year period of warfare and strifeknown as the Age of Division. The north-west became a battleground of rival war-lords, several of whom would briefly ruleDunhuang. As popular faith inthe tradi-tional Confucian social and political orderdeclined, the teachings of the Buddha,with their emphasis on detachment fromworldly experience and on the transcen-dent bliss of nirvana, offered relief fromthe abundant sorrows of daily life.

In the mid-fifth century, the smallkingdoms. of the north were succeeded byTurkic nomads, called the Toba, who uni-fied northern China and established theNorthern Wei dynasty, which soon broughtthe Silk Road oases under their control. .While the Northern Wei emperors absorbedmuch of traditional Chinese culture, theyalso converted to Buddhism and played animportant role in establishing the religionin the land they now ruled. Following thelead of the imperial court; powerful fami-lies and the educated classes embraced the

Opposite: Many Mogaomurals, painted cen-turies after the eventsthey depict, combinedlegend and historical[act. Here the Chinesesought solace in the many deities of the _ . ~~peror Wudi, during

Chinese Buddhist pantheon. Chinese ~s . .~ wllose reign DunhuangBuddhism developed a remarkable rangeYJ- y\......as founded, kneels inf b 1 f: d ' f h . . ~,)c homage to two Buddhaa e ie s an practices, rom t e austeritre o~ } 'd. " statues. T ley are I el-of monastic hfe to the pageantry of pOpU-( t ; u rijied as "golden men"

lar ceremony, ~r~m a phil~sophy of sc~ola~'i C\\monks to a religion of universal salvation. '~ofl~ ~\J ,. )

New caves were opened at Mogao I /' )\Q/'ffrom the late fourth century. While those ~'ofYuezun and other early monks had been

new religion. Common people, meanwhile,

Tang D'InaSI'I [618-907).' . '618i;lflgd;,m~i.V!!$!abl(~~~d1 1 Clilna, beglnnlng629(:~imi~elTJi:m~ Xuanzang

':p~rJ~d ,cifgry;.i.!jll?,w!!rhigo(~r!~n'd> o e . i r y i;{d . . sels ouioinou;;'i!''1 rccollecr'" :; :rp\pe:r';lie~aii:SlTI;ojq h l~ e s: e r ii p l , re .p ~ ) 1~ u 0 1 n g . !BuddliisTte.JSin 1 0 d l O 1 ;eturns' . : ~ , c o m ~ :lin~er,t~i1icaiitrol'ln~i9:'Q'i~'r ofleJjundred ' i r i 6d;~elco~ed ba


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This narrative sequencein two registers showsa caravan being accom-modated at an oasisway station. Providingfacilit ies such as wellsand bridges was a wayfor believers to gainmerit. Cave 296,Northern Zhou dynasty.Photo b y L o is C on n or , J995

707 Budc!hlst and Daelsr templesasrabllshed In event 'prefecture byimpei l~1 comma~~,l~chjdlng ~ongxlngTemple at pun huang. '

intended as meditation cells, the grottoessoon began to fulfill other functions aswell. The original fellowship of monksdeveloped into an important monasteryand religious mecca. Travelers who had sur-vived the Silk Road stopped to give thanks,while those about to head west across thegreat deserts prayed for protection againstthe trip's many dangers. Other visitorswould come to worship or to meditate; toaccrue karmic merit by sponsoring a cave,a devotional painting. or the copying ofa sacred text; or to make offerings such asgems or silk.

The 'shrines had secular functions, "too. The construction of a large cave waswell beyond the means of most individuals,but local merchants, hoping to ensure thesuccess of their trading missions, bandedtogether to sponsor caves. The grandest

temples were funded by important clergyand by the governors of Dunhuang, includ-ing two related to the Wei ruling house.Prominent local families, women's groups,military officers, foreign dignitaries - eventhe rulers of neighboring Silk Road king-doms-all served as donors. In this way theMogao grottoes became central to the life ofthe entire region. Over the course of a mil-le~nium, as many as one thousand caveswould be hollowed out the cliff. At leastve hundred were decorated and used as

temple shrines. Others were used as livingquarters for monks.. After more than three centuries of

division, China was reunified when succes-sors of the Northern Wei conquered the country and established the Sui dynasty, /9with its capital at the old Han capital of ::, UChang'an, in 581.The new regime officially

755,RebelUon andi ::lvi lWar break our In

'.Chlna: Chlliese troops,, with4~:wn'jro~ .....sT~,

ern'garrlsons. "

747 Conlederatlonof Iurklc UighurtrIbes form unitedkingdom on Mongollan steppe,

750 Terrlrorles 01Arabcaliphate reach as fareast as Samarkand;'Arabcapital mc,ved east fromDamascus to Baghdad.

75' Chinese ann'l,defeatedbVAr.ib lorces atIalasRIver, In wharls'roo.a'l,Kl r gh lz l st a n . .m a rk l r ig end ofTang emplr!i's,eipanslon, "

LT "

7605 TIbetan arm~marches n a n n Inro,tr;!dlll~ r.oU~es,~'! :cm~ue:r ! lig ' ir ianvSilli Road to~ s. '

121;.J


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sanctioned Buddhism, increasing the linkbetween Mogao and metropolitan China.Soon after the dynasty's founding, forexample, an imperial envoy arrived atMogao from the capital to commission theconstruction of a new cave.

The Sui dynasty was short lived, butthe unity itbrought to Chinalasted, usher-ing in the Tang dynasty-the golden age ofChinese civilization-which would reachits summit during the High Tang periodof the late seventh and early eighth century,Chang'an blossomed into the world's mostcosmopolitan city. Its one million inhabi-tants included eighty thousand foreigners,who were drawn there by its tolerance,thriving markets, and flourishing culturallife. Foreign amusements such as polo fas-cinated the wealthy, who also consumedmyriad luxuries imported on the Silk Road.

2J.

The emperor's court gathered the famouspainters of the 'age and set the trend for therest of China. The empire achieved itsgreatest reach, with garrisons establishedwest across the Taklamakan as far away asKucha, Khotan, and Kashgar.

Once more under the protection ofthe greatest empire on earth, Dunhuangenjoyed peace and considerable prosperity.Commerce was complemented by agricul-ture, with thousands of farmers workinggovernment land in an arrangement knownas the equal field system. Dunhuang's six-teen Buddhist monasteries, granted taxprivileges from the Chinese government,ranged from small communities of perhapsa dozen monks to large institutions withover one hundred monks and nuns. A fewpossessed hundreds of acres, worked byfamilies of serfs-masons, shepherds,

The murals at Magaoare rich in the detailsof daily life. This ,domestic scene show{horses being stabled.Cave 1 ; 1 5 , Late Tangdynasty.PhalD by N, vj JI 'Ag n~v, 1 99B


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During the Tangdynasty, Chinacame into conflictwith several rivaIempires, includingthe Arabs, Uighurs,and Tibetans. Largearmies ranged backand forth acrossthe region, oftenengaging in fiercebattle. Cave 12, LateTang dynasty.P ho tp b y WU I ian , 1999

camel herders. Monasteries filled varioussocial functions, such as hosting women'sdubs. As elsewhere in China, they werealso centers of scholarship and Iearning.Several housed important libraries.Mogao itself, twenty-five kilometersacross the desertfrorn the thriving entre-pot of Dunhuang, had emerged as oneof the great centers of Buddhist culture.Buddhist masters from India and centralAsia, passing through on their way toChang'an, would stop to meditate in thefamous painted caves or to consult themanuscripts in the monastery libraries.Elaborate devotional ceremonies reflectedthe pageantry and popular appeal ofChinese Mahayana Buddhism. In theannual June festival, for example, people -

from throughout the region made thepilgrimage to the temples for severaldays of ceremony; silk banners adornedthe cliff face, and the fragrance of incensewafted through the desert air. Visitorsmight also meditate, seeking rebirth in thePure Lands and other divine abodes-waystations on the path to nirvana-depictedin countless murals. The grottoes' deco-rated walls evoked the sights, sounds, andfragrances of these Buddha worlds.

The exuberance and ambition ofTang culture, which permeated the entireempire, are clearly evident at Mogao. Theshrines of this period are often sumptu-ously decorated. Mahayana Buddhistthemes predominate, reflecting the grow-ing importance of Buddhism in Chinese

Five Dvnaslies (97-60). .: - . . . . : _ ~ ~ ~ : c ; a ~ ~B ~ ( ; omm)s - B y 865 caY~\56~~it ; s-h~~-; - ' 0 : ; 9 9 ; : F , ~ I I : ~ t . : ~ i ; ~ p e 5 ~ j ~ ~ . i i ; . ' ; ' \: ' _ ' 9 1 ~ - O ~ ~ h l i i m g ; sru ler Z h a n g': -0 ' o~lbn~4~v 'ZhMFaro~g , :: i i i i s c _Jo - I G ~ n 1 ! ~ t ' i h a n g : o o d 0 t ~ i i j ;. U ~ n g ~ . m " ' - r e i f f o , < > { H u ; ! i i e ! i ' g [earns 01 fall of Tango _ , : _ - , :r;)i~i"dofr?~~ff~~DUIl:' - ~ f ~ l ~ ~ 9 o . _ ">,~~~~jlpt-:;;_~~: .~y~t f~~~l :; : ' : : ; { } : ' ~ : J ~ ~ & : ~ ~ ~ ' ~ ~ a . ~ l i ~ o ~ e s K i n g d O r r ii ~ i i ~ ~ t @ ~ f ~ u ) ~ j : D ~ ~ [ ~ ~ ~ ~ 1 t ~ i ~~ 1 f r ~ t ~ ~ ; ; ; ) f ~ ~ ~ ! , ! ~ ~C a . 9Z0 Cao Yijln becomesr ' u ierolbunhua~g. ccmmlsslonsOi~~96: !=aofalTil , lo irules Oilllhulo r min'e than a c ; : m r u . , r v . duringwh k h tW~ o n[V "~ ! X:a~~ bU lhandr iearly t h r e e h~ndred_refl l !hlshed.


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THE BLAZING BEACON'

life and institutions. During the Tangdynasty, Chinese emperors also sponsoreda number of works at Mogao, includingtwo colossal Buddha statues.

Mogao was by now a showcase forimperial China, and certain Tang muralsbetray an epic, even militarist, sweep morein keeping with the imperatives of thebustling Chinese nation than with the gen-tle Buddhist search for nirvana. Chinesecontrol over its vast domains remained ten-uous, however, as China was coming intoconflict with three other empires borderingthe Taklamakan. To the west. Islamicarmies of the Arab caliphate, whose capitalhad been moved east from Damascus toBaghdad, had nearly reached the PamirMountains. To the north. where the trou-blesome Xiongnu had roamed centuries

before, the peerless horsemen of th'e Turkicpeoples kept sweeping across the Gobifrom the Mongolian steppe. And to thesouth stood the recently formed Tibetanempire, with its powerful military, casting acovetous eye on the profitable Silk Roadoases. Chinese armies, often supplied fromDunhuang, ranged across central Asia inbloody wars of attrition. In 751Arab forcesdefeated the Chinese at 'Ialas River. north-east of Samarkand, marking the territoriallimits of both empires.

An even worse calamity followed,bringing the loss of ~any of the empire's.possessions and the end in Dunhuang ofthis period of peace. In 755 the general AnLushan led a rebellion that plunged Chinainto civil war. When the emperor recalledhis troops from the western garrisons.

960 Song d{l'aSly estab-lished In China; Dunhuang ,ruled by Cao dan. now farourslde Chinese borders.

96~ Khoran royal family visitsDunhuang 10 worship Buddha anddedicate copy of Lotus Surra,

966Cao,Yuanzheng andhis wife restorecolossal Buddha51;lIUe in Cave 96.

1006 Ar.3barmieshostile to Buddhismtake dIy-Slate ofKhotan, an allv ofDunhuang.

"I 124

23

Ninth-century draw-ing of a monastery,probably at Mogao,during the period ofthe Tibetan occupa-tion of Dunhuang.Pelliat Tibetain 993.CaurlY Biblictll.quenarianal . de France, Pari s

Ca. 1010At t.!ogao, thousandsof manuscrlprs, most of IhemBuddhis t t e"t s, sealed awa~ insecret chamber next to Cave ID.


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Th e f igu r e o f t he p ilg ri mm on k s ee m s to l Iavebe com e a holy im ag e inits own right . This paint in g on silk depicts amonk carrying a lo ad o fscrolls in the basket onhis back. Northern Songdynas ty .From Cave 17. Mogao .Millet! d"" arts asia!iqu"",Guimet,.l'arir. e PharolIMl'IRavaux

[ourneu-of a Silk Road PilgrimOver the centuries, hundreds ofChinese Buddhist monks traveledto India, exploring the genes is 01their phl losophv andrhelr lai th.Perhaps rhe most celebrated jour-ne lj took place dur ing the ear lljTang dl(Tlasrll, when rhe monkXuanzang, a brl11lant Unguisl andphilosopher whowas dlss~d5iiedwirhChlnese Buddhist texts anddes ired ro studethe OriginalSanskrit scriptures, set off on aremarkable sh(leen-vear expedi-tlon.It.would take him from theChinese caplra l to India and backagain, across the great c!vll izat ionsof the Silk Road'.

Insplte of being forbidden 10leave by the Tang emperorTaizong.the monk lef t China in 629; headingalong the northern arm of the SilkRoad. He stopped in the oasis 01Turfan, then conr lnued through theBuddhist strongho ld ot Kucha, one01 the most Impor tan t k ingdoms In

In W ei CiW morning raindampens the light dust.

By the travelers' lodge, green upongreen-thewillo:Ws' color is new.

I urge you to drinkrip yetanother glass of wine:

Going west from YangPass, thereare no old friends.

Wang Wei 1699-7591

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THE BLAZING BEACON

central Asia, and on up into theTian Shan . Here, he wrote , greatglaciers "rise mingling With theclouds ," and a third of h is horsesand men died crossing theperl louspasses.

Arriving InIckmak, he becamefrlendlv with the Grear Khan of theWeslern Turks. a powerful nomadicruler whom rha Chinese haa. fInal lyexpel led from their own trorularand who COOl rolled much of cen-tral Asia. The Great Khan nowenjolled good relations with China:three years earlier , he had offeredthe Tang emperor a gllt of a jewel-studded gold belt and f ive thou-san d horses . After passing alonggifts from the king of Turfan, Xuan-zang was ieted in rhe khan's vurl.The khan was adomed in greensatin ; h is ellre guard ol two hun-dred officers, who sat on mars intwo long rows, were "clad inshining garm'ents of embroideredsllk.-6 Fol lowing a feast of mut ton,wine, mare's milk, r ice cakes, andhoney (the first rwo of which themonk couldn't eat because of hisfai th), Xuam:ang regaled the dinerswith a presentation of Buddhistdoctrine.

Xuanzang's journev rook himnext to Sa r n a r k a nd , then sOU1htoBalkh, where Alexander the Grearhad headquartered nine centuriesbefore, and on 10 Bamiyan, wherecolossal statues of the Buddha-one over flftVme t ars high - werecarved Inro a difl face. Then i twasup through the Hindu Kush Moun-tains and afterward south towardIndia. The monk's parrv was as-sailed by bandits, whom he is saidto have disarmed through his fear -less piety, Soon he enteredPeshawar , the former capita l ofGandhara, second only to nor themIndia as a realm of Buddhist wor-ship. Finallv, after more than a Ijearof arduous travel, he crossed theGangesinlq the Buddhist holl f land,


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THE BLAZIN'G BEACON 25

W hen he emba rked on h is[o urn ee to C hin a, X ua nza ng657 scro lls in Sanskrit .

Pal l , as we U as relics a nd B u.d -im ag es . T he trip h om e p ro ve d

;I"",n'trrnll 'as w eU , a s b a nd it saga in plagued t h e m o n k' sp a r- Il Je U po n r ea ch in g t heo f K ho Ta n o n T he s ou th ern

R oa d, X ua nza ng wro te tor r(1 Th e C hin es e em pe ro r t ha tw as re tu rn in g a lo Va l sublect,

in st ru cte d o ffic ia ls t oh im b ack In to C hina a t

D u :n h ul a n. !l . Th e re T hem o n k r es te dv is ite d th e M og ao ca ve s, w hichwould com mem ora te h im

hls journev.Whe n X ua nz an g f 1n al h, a rr iv ed

th e ca pita l o f C ha ng 'a n, th ou-th ron ge d th e streets to w el-h im h om e. In h is h on or,

; >i ' r -' - -- ~ e st a bl is h ed a t ra n sl at io n.whara X ua nza ng sp en t th e

lW e ntlJ y ea rs o f h is life rranslar-Ing the p recious texts he ha d car-rie d Iro m Ind ia - m anlJ coplas ofw hi ch w ou ld I l nd th eirw alJ to D un -

E ve n no w. m an y o f h is tra ns -a re c on sid ere d s ta nd a rd

: th ro ug ho ut A sia . X ua nza ng 's, ex p lo i ts , rneanwhlle.soon passed. Into th e re aim o f m vth. Th e va rio usleg en ds a bo ut Th is "second Bud -'d ha " w ~u ld e ve nru allu c oa le sc e

.: in to a n ep ic nove l ca lled The /DUf-nell to the Wasr,one of the class icsp i C hin es e p op ula r lite ra tu re .

Tibet sent armies north into the tradingroutes it had long coveted. Tibet conqueredmany Silk Road towns and struck deep intoChina, even briefly occupying Chang'an in763. Tibetan armies soon controlled theregion around Dunhuang, whose governorappealed to the Uighurs, a Turkic peoplebased on the Mongolian steppe, hopingthat their swift cavalry might offset theTibetans' relentless infantry. The Uighursfailed to arrive, and after a ten-year siege,Dunhuang fell in about 781.7

In many respects the Tibetan occu-pation, which lasted almost seventy years,proved providential: it protected Mogaofrom the anti-Buddhist and antiforeign sup-pressions of the fervently Daoist emperorwho acceded to the Chinese throne in841. Buddhism in China suffered greatly:monasteries reverted to lay use, nuns andpriests were forced to rejoin the world,and Buddha statues were melted down tomake coins. Yet the construction of newcaves continued at Mogan, with many fea-turing Tibetan Buddhist symbolism.

The inhabitants of Dunhuang, how-ever, repeatedly rebelled against Tibetan

J 2R

This mural commem-orates Xuanzang'sjourney to India in. search of Buddhist.scriptures. He isshown traversing thePamirs on his returntrip; the wh ite ele-phant was a gift froman Indian king. Whenthe caravan wasattacked by bandits,the elephant stam-peded into a riverand drowned. Cave103, High Tangdynasty.Pho!o b y W u lia , 1 99 9


17/39

26

This panoramicmural commemoratesthe victory ojZhang Yichao, theDunhuang-barngeneral who drovethe Tibetan occupiersout oJDunhuangin 848. Horsemen,guards, musicians,and others celebratethe victory. Thismoment marked atransition in the for-tune, oj Dunhuang,since Zhang went onto rule the region asa quasi-autonomousstate. Cave 156, LateTang dynasty.Photo by Wu [ian, 1999

rule," In 848 a local general named ZhangYichao chased the Tibetans from his town, aswell as from most other oases along the east-ern Silk Road, a victory commemorated in anepic mural at Mogao. Although China grate-fully awarded him the title CommanderGeneral of the Return to Allegiance Armyand although he maintained relations withChang'an, Zhang and his descendants alsostrengthened Dunhuang's independence; ineffect] from this time onward, Dunhuarigwas quasi-autonomous. The Chinese capital,still beset by rebeIlion and unrest, nowpaid little attention to the western outposts,which had become vestiges of a once-great empire.

In the centuries following the fall ofthe Tang dynasty in 907, the various rulersof Dun huang vied with other regionalpowers to preserve their autonomy. CaoYijin, from another local family, succeededthe Zhangs in about 920. The Cao danwould govern Dunhuang for five genera-tions. Sincere Buddhists, they also used thereligion-and the art of the Mogao cavetemples-to solidify their regime, commis-sioning new shrines to publicize their

THE BLAZING BEACON

political alliances. The House of Cao con-solidated its power by marriage pacts withthe Uighurs, who had lost their empire onthe Mongolian steppe and settled along thenorthern Silk Road and who would play anincreasingly important role in Dunhuang'saffairs. Cao rulers also formed allianceswith such kingdoms as Khotan, whoseroyal family visited Dunhuang and becamepatrons of the Mogao caves, where they aredepicted in large murals. Dunhuang's state-sponsored Buddhist culture was moreimportant than ever; of the town's twentythousand inhabitants, more than one thou-sand were monks and nuns,"

Then, in 1006, Islamic forces con-quered Dunhuang's ally Khotan. Shortlyafterward, monks at Mogao sealed awaythousands of Buddhist manuscripts in oneof the caves; .perhaps they were alarmedby distant rumblings of new invaders,hostile to Buddhism, from far across theTaklamakan.

When the Song dynasty was estab-lished in China, Dunhuang lay well outsideChinese borders. By 1072 the town hadcome under the control of the Tanguts,

127


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THE BLAZING BEACON

who earlier in the century had establishedthe Western Xia dynasty, based not far fromDunhuang in northern Gansu. For morethan one hundred years, the Western Xiamaintained an advantageous position intheir relations with the Chinese Song, aswell as with Tibet, to the south, and otherempires to the north and west. Some eightycaves were built or redecorated at Mogaoin a distinctive style that reflected the .Western Xiii preference for Tibetan TantricBuddhism.

Finally, in the third month of theyear 1227, the residents of Dun huang expe-rienced perhaps the most definitive inva-sion of all, when the cavalry of GenghisKhan, consolidating his conquest of north-ern China about a decade earlier, sweptdown from the Mongolian steppe. Mongolarmies wiped out the Western Xia empireand sacked and destroyed Dunhuang. Theywould go on to conquer all of China andform the largest empire that the world hadever seen.

Under the Mongols, new works con-tinued at Mogao until at least 1357. TheYuan dynasty caves, in part because Tibetan

" " ..... - , ' . - . '

. , -- "

l"astyear . w e f ~ ~ / g h tt t h e s o u r e , : . q A > < ' : : ~ ." . -the S a n i k : ~ ~ , < , : ~ , .~ . . ' . ' . ." ' ' " \~ i : : ' ; ; : : : : : : . . .. ' _ . . . . - ' . : , : : " : > ' , ~ ' : . ~ _ ' ~ : . -i):,'-. . " .' , '".' ' _ " ' : ' ' < ~ " ; : . _ : ~ ; ; : ~ ~ ; " : i } ~ : ; ~ ; ~ ' ._ ~ : , ~ . ,.This y e a r , : " i l , I Q . 1 J g : Y iyerjbedsJv.. t h e , : B q i ; i } } t ; : , .

-:.:: .: ...-"iLI 80', ~F!ghri~g.S.?"th 0 ' IheCily," Tang.dynasty. : T .:_ .

.. _ ... . _ ,. -: . ' --'


19/39

The rulers o fDunhuangformedmarriage allianceswith other Silk Roadempires, and the art ofthe Mogao caves wasoften used to promotethese political ties.This portrait o f CaoYanlu's wife, a daugh-

ter o f the king o fKhotan, shows herwearing an elaborateheaddress and necklacemade o f the fine jadefor which Khotan wasrenowned. Cave 61,Five Dynasties.phoro by W" [ian, J999

THE BLAZING BEACON

monks had gained favor at the Mongolcourt, continued to show Tantric influences.However, by the time the Mongol emperorKublai Khan completed the conquest ofChina in the late thirteenth century, themillennium of Mogao's artistic greatnesswas at last coming to a close. New shippingroutes were replacing the arduous overlandtracks. Arab armies would eventually defeatthe Mongols, and Islam would replaceBuddhism as the dominant religion of cen-tral Asia,

The Silk Road was officially aban-doned under the Ming dynasty. The Mingbriefly established a garrison at Dunhuang,but in the sixteenth century it was overrunagain by Tibet. Chinese rule would be rein-stated in about 1715 . The influx of people,ideas, and art that had thronged the desertcapitals a thousand years before, however,had long since reversed into an outflow.Power shifted to other centers, especiallyalong the coast, and the oases that hadonce flourished along the edges of theTaklamakan were reclaimed by desert sands.The frontier at last was silent. The greatBuddhist civilizations of the Silk Road-including Dunhuang and the Mogaocaves-would remain essentially undis-turbed for some five hundred years.

II I


20/39

" THE BLAZING BEACON

The Uighuts, whofounded an empirein the Silk Road oasisof Turf an after beingchased from tireMongolian steppe,played an increasinglyimportant role in

Dunhuang's affairs.This Uighur king isbeing attended byservants. Cave 409.Western Xia dynasty.Phoro by Wu Jian, 1999

NOTES1. A tablet at the Mogao caves, dated 69B, recounts

the earliest known activity at the site.2. This image is from the great Han historian Sima

Qian (ca..145-Ca. 85,D.C.E.), whose HistoricalRecords was a seminal work of Chinese history.3. Hao Chunwen, DunhIJang de l ishi he wen/ lUa(History and culture of Dunhuang) (Beijing,1993),12-

4. Xuanzang, "Da Tang Xiyuji," in Ii Xuanlin et al.,eel, Da Tang Xiyuji j iaa:;zhu (Beijing: ZhonghuaShuju, 19B5),1030-31. See also Hiuen Tsiang[Xuanzang], Si-yu-ki, Buddhist Records of tileWestern World, trans. Samuel Beal, quoted in SallyHovey Wriggins, Xuanzang:"A Buddhist Pilgrimo n the Silk Road (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press,1996),166-67.

,. Rene Grousset, D e la G rice a l a C hi n e (Monaco:Les Documents d 'Art , 1948), xxxii .

6. Wriggins, Xuam;ang, 31.7. The exact date is debated among scholars.3. Roderick Whitfield, Dunhuang: Caves of the

Singing Sands, 2 vols, (London: Textile and ArtPublications, 1995),318.

9. Han Chunwen, Tang hauqi Wudai Song chuDunhuang s e n gn i de shehui shenghuQ (Social l ife ofmonks and nuns at Dunhuang in the later Tang,Five Dynasties , and early Song dynasty) (Beij ing:CASS, 1998). See also Susan Whitfield, Life alongthe Silk Road (Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 2000), 220-2t.

Yuan Dynasty 11279-1368)I;279 Mongols conquer "1280China, establish Yuan Dunhuang: d 'J T 1 a s ty . :Iow n Is ".. rebullt._ Before 1357Cave 3palnted;las, conllnned....tlsrlc ac,ivitya t Mogao.

: 2 . 9

'368 Mingd' JT1 aslYestabl ish edIn China. Under Ihe Mlng. rheSi lk Road will be offic:l .IlVabandoned; Dunhuang ando the r Sl lk R oa d o as es d ec lin e.

1 " 0 , , Mlngd' f l las tve st ab li sh e s g a rr is o n a tDl1nhuang: .

Ca.1516.Dl1nhu~ngrerakan byTlbetans,

130


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131


22/39

Pa rt o f th e cliff fa ce a tM og ao as it appearedwhen AUTe i Steinarr ived in 1907.By p or mu si an o f T ho B ri ti shLibrulJ\ S te in p ho t 3 92 15 6(689)

Manchu Qing Dynasty (l6~~-19111

LOST TREASURES OF THE SILK ROAOt

B V the late nineteenth century,the once-thriving oasis of Dun huang hadbecome a remote, dusty town of few inhab-itants in the wastelands of central Asia.The Mogao grottoes, although continuingto serve as a local religious center, particu-larly during the annual festivals in Mayand June, were largely abandoned. Wind-blown sands drifted into the caves, and thewooden temple facades built on the cliffshad fallen into decay. And yet, in a way,Dunhuang and Mogao were once againfortunate; other Silk Road sites had beenswallowed whole by the drifting dunes of \the Taklarnakan. The town of Niya, on thegreat desert's southwestern border, hadperished this way in the third century.Loulan, a military garrison withoutreli-gious associations or art, forgotten orabandoned by the Chinese capital, followedin the fourth. A s many as several hundredothers vanished in due course; traces ofsuch towns had emerged like will-a' -the-wisps on infrequent occasion, only to dis-appear beneath the desert once again.

Rarely were the sands disturbed.Locals sometimes robbed a tomb; Britishand Russian explorers turned up the oddcoin, bits of pottery, and even a few manu-scripts. The British surveyor WilliamJohnson briefly visited a buried city nearKhotan in the mid-186os-apparently thefirst European to do so. Russia's greatestexplorer of central Asia, Col. NikolayPrzhevalsky, came across ruins in theLopnar Desert a decade later. Przhevalskybriefly passed through Dunhuang in 1879,as did a Hungarian geological expedition.

. ' ; . ,S ' :17;~;91~~e~.~9. !~~~N!~~~-1723- 25 l o c a !o l flC la l s t a k 'e l n te r e s i 1]25 Pf :e s em-da ' i chy" r e" sr a ~n s h 1 " o. .. .r -II]: ' ".. ' '. in M og ~o "c a~ es ;D ;r rn .g ~u ll i! in go !. .o l.b ~n ~u an g e sia b~, :D~n , ~ u a~ ii :. \g i& l ii l; : rJ ~ hu a ij g ' ' . p r e 5 - e : n ! - ~ v dt ' f6f ' bun l iu .ang : ; i !~[e : l !shed e as t o j ~ in ed~~~ t ii 8 ga :D ' o~ tE ! , 4 g~ r~ " ~ iM : '.~ : r ll 5 'C r ip r l o l]0[ '1 :1 famllv an d s om e wa ll : . sh e of ol d c l rV '" ~ f . S ~ ~ ~ \ : ; J : ~. - / ? , ~ n ; : ; ; ! ; / : :~~~ilngs' dls'covered. '.- . . . _ ..~.' .

1 : : l 2

Belor


23/39

Neither party lingered, and although bothof them noted the grottoes at Mogao, andthe Hungarians, at least, took note of thewan paintings, apparently neither seriouslyexplored the caves and the art within.

As the nineteenth century ended, how-ever, word percolated back into Europe of ,ancient civilizations buried under the vastdeserts of the region then known as ChineseTurkestan. In the decades that followed. ahandful of adventurers, explorers, and archae-ologists from the West would trickle into theregion along the ancient trade routes, head-ing north from India or east from Europe orwest from China; soon a race developed toclaim the long-lost treasures of central Asia.

:dil3i""3~W h lle p os l~ d 1 0, 'Q l in h ua ll g; C h in e se o l. fl d~ 1; i ) .C , u t - l; ! l g u ': ' ri l e ,s ~po em ' ,' , '/ :- A r i'O d ,e : i o i~'~Thci~and.: ~Jluddha;Caves,":

1B7 9 'H u n g a ri a n e > ; pe d i -i lo t lv l s 'h s DU l l h u a ngandM6gaci cavas,

.-" _ r

The first great excavator of the now-abandoned Silk Road was the Swedish .geographer Sven Hedin, who was one ofthe most celebrated heroes of the West.Hedin almost died on his first expeditionthrough the Taklarnakan, but that did notprevent him from returning again andagain, unearthing Borasan, Karadong, andan oasis so mysterious that he could onlycall it Taklamakan, although it was lateridentified as Dandan-uilik (Place of Houseswith Ivory).

Several German expeditions. in whichthe kaiser himself took personal interest,soon followed. The second one was headedby Albert Von Le Coq and Albert Grtmwedel,

1900 .Dao l s 1 monkWa n g Y u an l ud i s cov e r ; h l d d e n cache or man-USCr lPI~ InCave 17 . which wou l dcometo be k no wn a s th e.llbrarv Cave.

Over the centuries,windblown sand piledup against the Mogaocliff face, and sec-t io n s, as here in thenorthern part of thesite, have collapsed inearthquakes.Pharo by G u ill er m o A l da n a,1991

1 9 0 D -1 9 01 A u r el S t el n' s f ir st expedJllonloc e nr ra l A s la makes a th or ou gh e xp lo ra tio n o fthe Kho l a n area.

133


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The Daoist abbotWang Yuanlu, the self-appointed caretakerofMogaD, standingat the entrance toCave 16.He discoveredthe Library Cave,which was filled withthousands of ancientmanuscripts.By p .rmiu ian ofTb Brir ishLibrary. Stein phoro J91h6(27)

1902 E;.pedillon to Turtan headed bV A l be nGr!ltl;"~d"l. Who makes derailed records: ' a p d drawings:

t1907 Aurel Stein vlshs Dunhuang on hissecond central AsIan axpedhlon; negotlareswhh Wang Yuanlu for purchase oftwemy-fourcases of manuscripts and flve cases of sllkpalmlngs. which are sem to Brl ,f lsh Muse~m.

" ".'

. ~.' 134. ; c : - '_ ~ .: .

LOST TREASURES OF THE SILK ROAD

excavating on behalf of the EthnologicalMuseum in Berlin. Exploring the Turfanregion in1904 and 1905, they found manu-scripts and sumptuous textiles dating tothe eighth century, indicating that animportant Manichaean community hadbeen settled there by pilgrims journeying'east from Persia along the Silk Road. TheGermans also excavated the Buddhist cavetemples at Bezeklik (Place Where There ArePaintings); here they found magnificentmurals depicting figures in Indian, Persian,central Asian, and Chinese dress. Theyremoved a great number, which they sawedinto pieces and packed off to Berlin.Perhaps itwas fortunate that, ina fatefuldecision based on a simple coin toss, theyopted not to pursue a rumor they hadheard of a remarkable find made severalyears earlier at Dunhuang, some two pun-dred miles to the south.'

In the 1890S an itinerant Daoistpriest named Wang Yuanlu from ShanxiProvince had settled at Mogao, where heappointed himself abbot and became theunofficial guardian of the grottoes andthe art they contained. He soon devotedhimself diligently-if not always wisely-to their restoration.

One day in 1900, while supervisingthe clearing of sand from the entrance toCave 16,Wang noticed a hidden doorway,which had been plastered over and paintedso that it was concealed. His workmenbroke away the plaster, revealing a smallside chamber crammed from floor to ceil-ing with scrolls. The abbot had stumbledon a vast hoard of ancient manuscriptsnumbering in the tens of thousands. There

19,05French' slnologls1 Paul Peli10t arrives a! Dunhuang andMogao;Jiavlng scanned al l remalnlngmanusr :r ip .s and docu-'m"l1j5 ..h!!m~kes a setecrlcn, whlch he sendsto Blbilo1hequenallc\!1ale de France hi Parls, A I same lIme. Charles Noue"emakas p~otographlc record 01 all accessIble caves,


25/39

SUIl.ES OF THE SILK ROAD

uncreu> of other items as well,banners and paintings to fine silkries and other rare textiles.of the discovery soon reached

in China. In 1902 the prefect ofsent a number of the docu-

Province, a noted scholar of ancientHe suggested that the entire

sent for safekeeping to the provincialat Lanzhou, but there was no pro-for the expense of transport, so

in Gansu ordered Abbot Wangseal the Library Cave again.Aurel Stein, excavating on behalf

the British Museum and the (British)~nlJ'pr11menr of India, had first heard about

Mogao caves from his friend ProfessorL6czy, who had been a member of

Hungarianexpedition that had visitednearly thirty years before. Hisglowing description of the art of

caves, Stein later wrote, had first'aroused his interest and supplied the maincause for the extension of his expedition"so far eastwards into China."2 Hungarianby birth, Stein would become a British citi-zen-he would, indeed, be knighted,largely for his discoveries in central Asia.After leaving Kashmir, he had been travel-ing for almost a year, most of it spent roam-ing the Taklamakan. In Loulan, to the westof Dunhuang, he had unearthedpoignantmilitary documents dated to 330 C.E.,which described this frontier fort's finaldays before it was overrun by the Hulls.

According to Sir Leonard Woolley,who discovered the lost Babylonian city ofUr, Stein's excursions into central Asia were

LlrI I " . ; 1 90 9 C hi ne se a uth or ltie s i n S e il in g o rd ert , c :r e .m a f n f n g -m a n u s c ; rl P I 51 0 b e p a c l < ed a n d~ " . :: lr an s Po rr "d lo < :a p ll al lo r s af ek e ep in g .:. ~jhe'lr e ~ c l li s e d "l r iM l n ls r rv 01 E~uc a l l on .

35

The archaeologist andexplorer AureI Stein.In addition to his dis-coveries at Mogao andelsewhere in centralkia, he made maps ofthe regian that are stillvaluable today.By p er mi !s ia n a f T he B ri ti shLibrary. Stein phata J9~/7B(m)

1 9 1 0Th e f t I : > f s om e m a nu sc rip ts lr omMln l s lTV tlf E d uc ;a ll on ;A n a rr es t 1 5m a d e,b u tl g ll .r e ~o l ul lo n p r er :! p ll al ln g f a ll o fQ l n " g d l { l ia s " tY . il n df o u n d lt i g 0 1 Chinese

" r epUbl i . : .means that case IsnO I r e s o lv e d .

1911 M e m be rs o f J ap an es eC ou n t O ta n i's e xp e di lf onV i s! 1D u n hu an g a n dacquire s ev e ra l h u nd re d

.~,",' - . - : .

m a n us :r ll 'I s

J 35


26/39

E xte rior of tw o of th eM og ao ca ve s a s th eya pp ea re d i n 1907im u ra ls a nd s ta tu esa re v is ib le w i th in .T he s tan din g m an OJ]t he lo we r le ft r ev ea lsthe s ize of the cave s.B y p


27/39

,T TREASURES OF THE SlflC ROAD

soon gave way to barren rocky hills.wrote Stein, "on the almost perpen-conglomerate cliffs rising on our

I caught sight of the first grottoes ....bewildering multitude and closeness,

.1 they] presented their faces, some high,low, perched one above the other

. .:without any order or arrangement in. storeys." Approaching a bit closer, he at

"noticed that fresco paintings covered. the walls .... 'The Caves of the ThousandBuddhas' were indeed tenanted, not byBuddhist recluses, however holy, but byimages of the Enlightened One himself."]

Itwas not long before Stein under-stood the remarkable range and antiquityof the works before him, which covered thesweep of Greco-Buddhist, central Asian,and Chinese art. There were countlesssculptures.iincluding a colossal statue of asitting Buddha, "rising through caves witha number of storeys," And, of course, therewere the murals. These, he remarked,"showed the closest affinity to the remainsof Buddhist pictorial art transplanted fromIndia to Eastern Turkestan .... But in therepresentation of figures and faces theinfluence of Chinese 'taste made itself feltdistinctly, and instead of the thin au tlinesand equally thin colouring there appearedoften a perfect exuberance of strong butwell-harmonized colours .... 1could notdoubt for a moment that the best of thesefrescoes belonged to the times of theTang dynasty.,,4

Abbot Wang was away, however, soStein, unable to find out much more aboutthe manuscripts, contented himself withexploring the caves themselves. Finally, at

Treasure hunters haveremoved much o f thegold leaf that origi-nally adorned this ele-gant portrait of thebodhisattva Guanyln.

However, some goldremains in the jewelryand crown. Cave 57 ,Early Tang dynasty.Photo by Lai s Catln'~r,1995


28/39


29/39

TREASURES Of THE SILK ROAD

Stein immediately sized Wang up ,, someon-e who might be difficult to win

to his purposes-which were, first, to'''''lHU'''- the Library Cave and, second, to

as much of its contents as he could.surprisingly, Wang proved reluctant

give the foreigner even the slightestinside the small grotto. Authorities,

had considered transporting all ofdocuments to the provincial capitalLanzhou, knew that the trove existed.e abbot knew that they knew, and henot believe he could trust any foreigner

keep a secret arrangement secret.Stein. therefore, decided to work on

"Wang's vanity. Through his diplomatic"Chinese secretary and interpreter JiangSiye, he praised the abbot's restorationwork-which, in truth, appalled him. This.' helped to melt the ice: Next he hinted thathe might be able to make a donation to therestoration fund, which warmed thingseven more. Then he mentioned Xuanzang.

The seventh-century Chinese pil-grim, who had passed through Dunhuangwhen he reentered China.' now reappearsin the Dunhuang story. The geographicnotations that Xuanzang had made in hisRecord of a Journey to the West were so pre-cise that they were stil! considered modelsof accuracy early in the twentieth century.Stein had long since taken him as his'patron saint, using the notes to guide himin the Taklamakan when his life, literally,had depended on it. Now, when he men-tioned the Tang monk, the abbot's eyes,"otherwise so shy and fitful ... showed agleam of lively interest/" Abbot Wang, itturned out, also venerated Xuanzang; he

39

The stamped-ellrthcore of this ruinedwatchtower, built dur-ing the Han dynastymore than two thou-sand years ago, stillstands guard over thedesert sands nearDunhuang. It is oneof the westernmostoutposts of the GreatWall of China.By ptTm;ujon oITht BdluhLibrary, SId" p ho lo 3 9 :1 /5 6(698)

139


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The interior of Cave16; the secret openingleading to the LibraryCave and its astound-ing cache of ancientmanuscripts is inthe foreground 011the right.By p er m is si on o f T he B ri ti sh 'Librar),. Stein photo 392/56(86)

quickly showed his guest the newly builtloggia in front of the temple: the wallswere decorated by murals-which thepriest himself had commissioned from alocal artist-representing scenes fromthe pilgrim monk's adventures. Linked bytheir common respect for this legendaryfigure, the British-Hungarian explorerand the Chinese Daoist monk found com-mon ground; for Stein, the battle wasessentially won.

It was now largely a matter of patienceand time-along with a bit more cunningon Stein's part. He referred to the fact thatXuanzang had taken hundreds of manu-scripts out o~ India to China, and that verynight the abbot showed up with severalscrolls hidden beneath his coat. Stein'ssecretary spent the night examining them; atdawn, he arrived at Stein's tent, where he

140

elatedly informed the explorer that, accoring to their colophons, the manuscripts wChinese versions of Buddhist sutras that hbeen brought from India and translated,more than twelve hundred years earlier,none other than Xuanzang himself.

Astonished, Stein quickly pressed hadvantage, suggesting to Abbot Wang thafrom beyond the grave Xuanzang hadchosen this moment to reveal these sacreBuddhist texts to Stein so that "his admirand disciple from distant India" couldreturn "to the old home of Buddhism soof the ancient manuscripts which chancehad placed in {Wang's] keeping."

Within hours the door to the secrechamber was opened.

Once again, Stein was amazed. "Heaup in layers," he wrote, "but without anyorder, there appeared in the dim light of


31/39

TREASURES OF THE SILK ROAD

little lamp itsolid mass of manu-bundles rising to a height of nearlyfeet, and filling, as subsequent measure-showed, dose on 500 cubic feet....

in the driest soil could relics of a ruinedhave so completely escaped injury ashad here in a carefully selected rockber where, hidden behind a brick... these masses of manuscripts had

lain undisturbed for centuries?"This would indeed be Stein's greatest

., coup, one of the richest finds in the historyp of archaeology. There were perhaps asr : : - many as fifty thousand documents in all,~. the majority of them Buddhist. In somecasesthere were hundreds, in some casesthousands of copies of the best-known .sutras, handwritten with brushes dipped inlustrous black ink on paper-a materialunknown in the Western world until theeighth century, when Chinese taken pris-.oner in a battle with the Arabs passed ontheir knowledge to artisans in Samarkand,but used in China for almost a thousandyears before that. Some bore dates (the ear-liest from 406, the latest from 996); somewere illustrated-and some were not man-uscripts at all but books printed six hun-dred years before Johannes Gutenberg'sfamous Bible.Many more were entirelysecular.and these in particular would illu- .rninate aspects of Chinese history, art, andliterature that until then had remained intotal obscurity. There were also documentsin such languages asTibetan, Uighur, andKhotanese, And there were paintings onpaper and hemp, paintings on silk, andsilken banners-in "a transparent gauzeof remarkable fineness"-some of which

4 1

Pile of ancient scrollsobtained by Steinfrom the Library Cavein 1901.By p~rmusior r of The Bri ti shLibrary. St.in pharCll7747


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42

In addition to thou-sands of ancient man-uscripts, the LibraryCay!!yielded an aburl-dance of silk embroi-deries and paintings.The brilliant coloringand excellent state ofp reservation of thispainting an silk,obtained by PaulPelliot, is due to itsbeing stil l quite newwhen it was storedaway in the earlyeleventh century. Theinfluence oj TantricBuddhism is evidentin the geometricalarrangement of thedeities aroundthe central figure,Amoghapasha, animportant deity. Donorportraits can beseenat bottom. NorthernSong dynasty.Muse. d~ arts asiatiqu~.Guirn.t, Paris . Phoro RMN


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T TREASURES OF THE SILK ROAD

began to criticize his older colleagues,twenty-seven when he was sent to cen-Asia as head of the French expedition.got there before him, but Pelliot knew

JW'"'''''''' and that made all the difference.e British Library has five hundred copiesthe Diamond Sutra and over a thousand

Sutras, largely because Stein didrealize what he was taking away from

.Pelliot knew.

waiting for his luggage to arrive.. passed the time by learning Uighur,the principal language of the region.)

.Pelliot arrived in Dunhuang in 1908, afteroverseeing various archaeological finds inTumshuq, Kucha, and Urumqi; he, likeStein, was staggered whenhe entered Cave17. His triumph was facilitated by Stein'sdiscretion, because Abbot Wang was

. finding it easier now to trust his Europeanvisitors. Despite Stein's haul, Pelliot esti-mated that between fifteen thousand andtwenty thousand documents still remained-and, remarkably, he spent the next threeweeks examining them, one at a time, bycandlelight,

Pelliot estimated that over a period offifteen days he examined almost one thou-

t..~ sand documents a day. Unlike Stein, he wasr able to decipher on the spot what valuablest he held and then to determine which weref ' most likely to prove of scholarly or histori-{ cal importance. Like Stein, however, he! ? was a very good bargainer: French taxpay-r ers paid the equivalent of 90 for thet., thousands of documents that he shipped, to the Musee Guimet and the Bibliotheque

nationale de France in Paris. On his wayback to France, Pelliot passed throughBeijing, where he showed some of his findsto scholars. In 1909 the Chinese governmentordered the removal of all that remainedof Cave 17 to the Ministry of Education

in Beijing, and today these documents arein the National Library of China in Beijing.Abbot Wang, however, did not renderquite.everything that was his, secreting var-ious texts in the statues he was so labori-ously restoring and perhaps hiding othersin other caves. In 1911 he had enough leftover to sell six hundred documents to aJapanese expedition, headed by an archae-ologist who claimed to represent the Kyotomonastery of a certain Count Kozui Otani,the leader of the Japanese Pure Land sect.According to one account, British andRussian intelligence agents in the region,who had his expedition shadowed, believedthat he was aspy. B The priest sold two hun-dred more documents to a Russian expe-dition in 1914. Stein returned in 1914 andbought five more cases of material, thoughhe did not see Cave 17 again.

In the 1920S the American art histo-rian Langdon Warner made the trek toDunhuang to see the wall paintings forhimself. He had read the accounts pub-lished by Stein and Pelliot, but on arrivingat the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas,he would later write, "there was nothing todo but to gasp .... For the holy men offourteen centuries ago had left their godsin splendor on these walls." 9 He acquiredtwelve sections of wall paintings and a smallsculpture for the Fogg Museum of HarvardUniversity, in Cambridge, Massachusetts,but he was conscious of being watched.

By then, in fact, the Chinese werereacting with ever-deepening outrage towhat they perceived as the pillaging of theircultural treasures. Some expeditions wouldeven be sabo~aged, including the second ofLangdon Warner and the last-the fourth-of Aurel Stein. Soon the doors slammedshut, and by the end of the 19205, the greatrace for Silk Road antiquities was over.

Nevertheless, the final numbers arebreathtaking. Central Asia had yielded

1.45

s .45

,:. 1

Opposite: One ofthe silk paintingsremoved by AurdStein. The figures whosurround the bodhi-sattva Ksitigarbha arethe ten kings of theunderworld, shownbehind desks andappareled as Chinesemagistrates, just asthey appear in illus-trated copies of theSutra of the TenKings. The monkDaoming-whodescended to hell andreturned to tell of his'Visions there-canbeseen along witha lion.D CDpyrighr Th~BritishMweum, OA.1919.11.D~3(Ch.0021)


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LOST TREASURES OF THE~SILK ROAD;

? - ' : ' .~f;.northern steppe cultures. Sites other than]::,)v10gao also held wall paintings; some,~Y>suchas those at Kizil, showed a distinctive,:' '''Indian influence, while others, like those at~t?Miran, perhaps even bore the signature of a".: Greek artist. Numerous small fragments of,i: statuary were also found, along with care-. ' fu lly carved woode~ decorative elements;;:~'that once adorned the public buildings and5~{temple5 in the thriving oasis cities. Finally,* - ~ : ~ . ~}~r,~i-- ' ,7

47

the desert yielded countless other objects,from lacquered armor found in a fort onceoccupied by Tibetan soldiers to pieces offine jewelry, hair combs, and cookingutensils.

In the Library Cave at Mogao, inaddition to countless Buddhist texts, silkand paper paintings, and textiles, therewere many other documents that providefascinating insights into daily life at thisremote oasis: medical records, includingprescriptions; records of grain and cloth-ing from the military magazine at the JadeGate; even the names of military regi-ments, such as one called the "barbarian-suppressing company."

The treasures of the Library Cavehave been scattered to institutions in eightcountries on three continents. In the yearssince the Chinese closed the door, theactions of Stein, Pelliot, Le Ceq, Warner,and others have occasioned considerablecontroversy: wall paintings crudely liftedfrom cave walls; manuscripts, sculptures,and silk paintings packed up and cartedaway; hundreds of thousands of artifactstaken to the West by the various expedi-tions to central Asia. Those excavators gen-erally maintained that they had helpedbring to light what had lain in darkness forcenturies of not always benign neglect.Some said that the Koran's stricturesagainst figurative art, for example, had ledthe Islamic invaders who conquered muchof central Asia to destroy many paintingsand sculptures. Local treasure seekers andtomb robbers often sought out sites to pil-lage. White Russian refugees, interned atDunhuang during the Russian Revolution,defaced paintings and blackened entirecaves with-soot from their fires. Local mag-istrates took objects as gifts to theirsuperi-ors, Langdon Warner noted-perhaps a bitself-servingly, in view of his plan to makeoff with a number of wall, paintings-that


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TREASURES OF THE SILK ROAD

such damages, "in twenty years thiswon't be worth a visit."More SilkRoad treasures wer~

in seven nights of Allied bomb-of Berlin during World War II,however,all of the above had managed in seven

Others mysteriously disappearedthe Russians occupied the city. Much

the Japanese collection of the enigmatic.otani was also dispersed.Not surprisingly, China particularlyt h e loss of the Cave 17library to. Western institutions. Althoughof the scrolls have long been availablemicrofilm, Chinese scholars have been

1l I 'm~,~"""" , , ,pr l by lack of access to the material,most of the research has been done

In the past few decades, how-Dunhuang research groups have been

at most leading Chinese univer-and their scholars have published

!l'dlUl.lUlt:U~ of articles and monographsthe Mogao caves.Excellent historical,

and conservation research isout by members of the Dunhuang

tbl\Caaelny.The widespread diaspora of theang material, meanwhile, has givene to a vibrant field of international

with scholars from China,",q"-I-',