Dunhuang, China and the indescribable Mogao Caves

one of the beautifully painted Mogao Caves

Dunhuang and the Mogao Caves were a new stop for us.  And what a visit!  Dunhuang was a major town along the Silk Road.  A desert city, it abuts against high sand dunes on one side and hardpacked, barren land on the other.  Rugged, deep brown, rocky hills form a barrier across the valley and in the distance, 20,000 foot high, snow-capped mountains loom above the desert plain.

Qiliang Mountains from oasis between Jiayuguan and Dunhuang

Here, Silk Road merchants from India brought Buddhism 1600 years ago.  Between the 4^th and the 14^th centuries AD, wealthy Buddhist families hired workers to carve out caves in the cliffs outside Dunhuang, some with huge Buddhas, hoping these sponsorships would aid their entry into paradise.  Artists then painted the insides of the caves gorgeously, using lapis lazuli for bright and soft blues, turquoise for green and cinnabar for red colors.  They covered the walls and ceilings of the caves with intricate Buddhas, apsaras, scenes from paradise, animals, people and lotus flowers. 

detail of Mogao Cave painting

These caves rival the magnificent pharaonic tombs of upper Egypt, also brilliantly covered with paintings of the pharaohs and, in some, the daily lives of the workers who dug the tombs.  It is hard to describe the beauty and intricacy of the Mogao Cave paintings, so I will simply suggest that if you decide to visit China, you include Dunhuang and its incredible painted caves.  Because you are not allowed to take photos inside the caves, the photographs in this blog are from books and post cards I bought in Dunhuang.

row of caves on 2 levels

One Buddhist monk from the 4^th century had a vision of creating these monuments to Buddha.  He found a cliff and started chiseling out caves from the hard rock.  Over the next thousand years, workers dug over 1000 caves, 735 of which are in beautiful condition today.  The colors are original, though some of the statues of Buddha are reproductions from the 19^th century (in quality, far below the graceful standard of the earlier Buddhas).  The caves vary in size, but can easily hold 25 people, the maximum number allowed inside a cave at one time.

Mogao mural

You have to reserve your tickets to visit the caves well in advance of your arrival or you won’t get in, as tickets are limited to 6000 people per day.  Seems like a lot, but the demand is substantial, especially among the Chinese people who increasingly want to see the wonders of their own country.  Each group is allowed to visit 8 of the caves and the visitations are rotated periodically so that potential damage is minimized.  We had a terrific English-speaking guide who explained the history, iconography and motivations behind the intricate paintings in each cave we visited during our nearly 3 hours at the site.

dunes at sunrise from hotel roof terrace

Besides the caves, the dunes behind Dunhuang are a great visit.  From our hotel’s rooftop terrace (the Silk Road Hotel, the best in town and really quite charming), we could watch the changing colors on the high dunes behind the town at dawn and dusk.  In the early morning, we went to visit the number 1 dunes’ attraction, Crescent Lake, with its dwindling size and fake monastery—very popular with Chinese tourists and surprisingly pretty.  But, the best dunes activity is actually climbing the dunes, easily done using a rope and pipe ladder laid on the sand that lets your feet grip with each step instead of sliding backwards in the soft sand.  From the top of the highest dune, you can see the town and the lines of sand dunes going off for 40 kilometers into the distance.

camel ride across the dunes

Several of our group took a camel ride, on Bactrian camels, up high onto the dunes and loved it.  You can also rent a sled to slide down the dunes or a sand buggy at the top of the main dune to explore farther into the desert.  Fortunately, the winds heal the gashes these vehicles make in the sand. 

planting underway

The government has planted trees and grasses extensively in an effort to keep the sand from blowing over and eventually burying Dunhuang.   In North Africa, we’ve seen oases where sand has mostly covered the date palms, farms and homes in the oases.  That is certainly a threat here which even the most diligent planting probably can’t prevent.  Meanwhile, this part of the Gobi Desert, and other oases farther east support quite a bit of agriculture because of aquifers not too far below the desert surface.  The question will be how long these can be sustained.  They are replenished today from melting snow running off the high snowy mountains in the distance, but will this continue as the earth warms?

Because the Chinese government had closed the Dunhuang airport for several months of repairs, we flew from Xi’an to Jiayuguan, a small desert city about a 5 hour drive east of Dunhuang across the Gobi Desert, then drove to Dunhuang. 

fortress at Jiayuguan

Jiayuguan is where the Great Wall of China begins, in the hard rock mountains east of the town.  This part of the Wall has not been restored, so is only about 2 feet wide and built of mud bricks that have eroded over the centuries.  It is a remarkable sight to look at the original wall meandering off towards the mountains where it begins.

Jiayuguan has a mud brick fortress which is an enjoyable visit, complete with watch and signal towers.  Because it is so remote and rarely visited, we wandered through the fortress without the usual crowds of tourists.  This was a distant guard station far out in the Gobi

Great Wall near its beginning

Desert and must have been a desolate place to live as one of the emperor’s soldiers.  Today, Jiayuguan is a steel-producing city, very small by Chinese standards with only about 180,000 people.
Today, China has large wind farms in the Gobi as it attempts to not only increase its use of renewable energy, but also to compete globally for the renewable energy market.

Gobi Desert wind farm