Caves of the Singing Sands
Buddhist Art from the Silk Road
Wednesday September 12 2012 By Dunhuangwang
DUNHUANG
The oasis town of Dunhuang lay at a crucial junction of the Silk Road, that ancient braid of caravan trails stretching for more than 7,000 kilometers from China to the Mediterranean, which served as a highway not just for merchandise, but also for ideas - religious, cultural and artistic. By the 4th century AD, the Silk Road had brought Dunhuang both commercial prosperity and a growing Buddhist community. Some 25 kilometers to its south-east, at the edge of the Mingsha Shan or Dunes of the Singing Sands, lay a river bed bordered by a long cliff.
THE CAVE TEMPLES
According to Tang Dynasty records, a monk had witnessed onsite a vision of thousand Buddhas under showers of golden rays. Thus inspired, he started the caves construction work that spanned ten dynasties. Mogao Caves are commonly known as the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas.Buddhist art has its origins in India. Mogao sculptors improvised where the rock surface did not work well under their chisels. They placed clay statues in front of the cave walls, carved relief murals as backdrops, and painted the sidewalls and ceilings with art decors. The largest statue is 34.5 meters (113 feet) high and the smallest a mere 2 centimeters (0.79inches) high.
The traveler will note traces of Indian Buddhist art in the earlier works. More recent works depict all walks of life and activities in a local setting. You will relive the daily routines and special events as captured by the artists while you are exploring the 750 caves. There are also ups and downs in the artistic quality over the centuries, depending on the fortunes of Buddhism with available art patronage. Artists in each dynasty painted with their distinctive palette. The visitor can tell the works in the Tang Dynasty from those in the Song Dynasty.
Architecture
Many of the early caves followed the central column style of cave construction seen in places such as Ajanta Caves in India. The central column represent the stupa round which worshippers may circumambulate and gain blessings. Others are hall caves influenced by traditional Chinese and Buddhist temple architecture. These caves may have a truncated pyramidal ceiling sometimes painted to resemble a tent, or they may have a flat or gabled ceiling that imitates traditional buildings. Some of the caves used for meditation are adaptation of the Indian Vihara (monastery) caves and contain side-chambers just large enough for one person to sit in.
Many of the caves originally had wooden fore temples, but most had been destroyed with only five remaining, and the two earliest of those are rare examples of surviving Song dynasty wooden architecture.
Murals
Early murals showed a strong Indian and Central Asian influence in the painting techniques used, the composition and style of the paintings as well as costumes worn by the figures. A distinct Dunhuang style however began to emerge during Northern Wei Dynasty. Motifs of Chinese, Central Asian and Indian origin may be found in a single cave, and Chinese elements increased during the Western Wei period.The murals on the caves spanned a long period of history, from the 5th to the 14th century. The murals are extensive, covering an area of 490,000 square feet (45,000 m²). They are valued for the scale and richness of content as well as their artistry. The murals are largely of Buddhist theme, some however are of traditional mythical themes and portraits of patrons. These murals document the changing styles of Buddhist art in China for nearly a thousand years. The artistry of the murals reached its apogee during the Tang period, and the quality of the art work dropped after the tenth century.
A common motif in many caves is the tiers of numerous Buddha figures known as the "Thousand Buddhas", after which this and other "Thousand Buddhas Caves" are so named. These small Buddhas were drawn using stencils so that identical figures may be replicated. Flying apsaras, or celestial beings may be depicted in the ceiling or above the Buddhas, and figures of donors may be shown along the bottom of the walls. The paintings often depict jataka tales which are stories of the life of Buddha, or avadana which are parables of the doctrine of karma. Bodhisattvas started appearing during the Northern Zhou period, with Avalokitesvara (Guanyin), which was originally male but acquired female characteristics later, the most popular. Most caves show Mahayana and Sravakayana (Theravada or Hinayana) influences, although Mahayana Buddhism became the dominant form during the Sui Dyansty. An innovation of the Sui-Tang period is the visual representation of the sutra - Mahayana Buddhist teachings transformed into large complete and detailed narrative paintings.One of the central features of Tang art in Mogao is the representation of the paradise of the Pure Land, indicating the increasing popularity of this school of Mahayana Buddhism in the Tang era. The iconography of Tantric Buddhism, such as the eleven-headed or thousand-armed Avalokitesvara, also started to appear in Mogao wall paintings during the Tang period – it became popular during the Tibetan occupation of Dunhuang and the subsequent periods, especially during the Yuan dynasty.
While Buddhist art is stylistically distinct from secular art, the style of paintings in the caves often reflects that of the contemporaneous secular paintings, especially those depicting secular scenes. Figures of the donors are generally depicted in the contemporary style, and may include secular events associated with them, for example scenes depicted for General Zhang Yichao, who ruled over Dunhuang in a quasi-autonomous manner during the Late Tang period, include a commemoration of his victory over the Tibetans in 848. The portraits of donors increased in size during the period ruled by the Cao family who succeeded the Zhang family. The Caos formed alliances with the Uyghurs and the Kingdom of Khotan and their portraits are featured prominently in some of the caves.
Many of the figures have turned dark due to oxidation of the lead-based pigments from exposure to air and light. Many early figures in the murals in Dunhuang also used painting techniques originated from India where shading was applied to achieve a 3-dimensional or chiaroscuro effect. However, the darkening of the paint used in shading over time resulted in heavy outlines which is not what the painters had originally intended. This shading technique is unique to Dunhuang as such shading on human faces was generally not done in Chinese paintings until much later when there were influences from European paintings. Another difference from traditional Chinese painting is the presence of figures that are semi-nude, occasionally fully nude, as figures are generally fully clothed in Chinese paintings. Many of the murals had been repaired or plastered over and repainted over the centuries, and older murals may be seen where sections of later paintings had been removed.Edited By :Mengyuan yang ID:5215253
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