Literature is shaped, informed, and influenced by the age in which it is written. We cannot fully appreciate a work of literature without understanding the context of its creation. We have seen this, for instance, in the case of the Rigveda — its songs make little sense unless we also look at the people who composed them. Or take the medieval Ramayanas of India—we appreciate them more fully when we understand the bhakti movement and the social, cultural, and religious imperatives of the poets who composed them. Thus, to my mind, when exploring India’s varied and ancient literature, it is also necessary to explore India’s varied and ancient past. So, from now on, here on Fish, I will also share my discoveries of the past.
THE MOGAO CAVES
We begin 2025 with a journey to the ancient town of Dunhuang in northwestern Gansu province in western China. The town, situated in an oasis between the Gobi and Takla Makan deserts, was located at a junction of the ancient overland trade routes we now term the Silk Roads and was an important stop for travellers of all kinds. In time, the town became home to a vibrant and diverse multilingual community of merchants, scribes, painters, monks and nuns.
About 25 kilometres southeast of Dunhuang lies a Buddhist cave complex known as the Mogao Caves. The complex consists of several hundred caves carved into the long cliff-face above the Dachuan River. The oldest caves date back to the fourth century CE, the first cave carved, according to legend, by a wandering Buddhist monk. Over the next one thousand years, the caves became an important centre of worship and attracted pilgrims from all over the Buddhist world. Hundreds more caves were carved into the cliffs. Some were no more than small niches in the rock, others were large halls; almost 500 of these caves were decorated with murals and painted sculptures.
The Mogao Caves complex is one of the most significant Buddhist sites in the world. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
A description of the caves on the UNESCO World Heritage Convention website states:
492 caves are presently preserved, housing about 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 2,000 painted sculptures. Cave 302 of the Sui dynasty contains one of the oldest and most vivid scenes of cultural exchanges along the Silk Road, depicting a camel pulling a cart typical of trade missions of that period. Caves 23 and 156 of the Tang dynasty show workers in the fields and a line of warriors respectively and in the Song dynasty Cave 61, the celebrated landscape of Mount Wutai is an early example of artistic Chinese cartography, where nothing has been left out—mountains, rivers, cities, temples, roads and caravans are all depicted.
The murals and sculptures in the caves depict scenes from daily life in Dunhuang and western China. As the UNESCO website states, ‘the unique artistic style of Dunhuang art’ is ‘an amalgamation of Han Chinese artistic traditions’, integrated with ancient Indian and Gandharan styles and greatly influenced by the artistic traditions of the town’s diverse communities.
A MONK NAMED WANG YUANLU AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE LIBRARY CAVE
Over the centuries, as maritime trade began to replace overland trade routes, Dunhuang became less important and the Mogao caves, though still an important religious site for local people, became partially filled with sand.
In the 1890s, a Daoist priest named Wang Yuanlu took it upon himself to restore the caves. In 1900, as he was supervising the clearing of sand from a cave, he found a hidden room containing thousands of manuscripts, printed materials, textiles, paintings, and more. Designated Cave 17 of the complex, it is also called the ‘Library Cave’.
The contents of the cave date from the fifth to the eleventh century CE. They are in many languages and scripts, including Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Khotanese, Sogdian, Old Uyghur, and Old Turkic. They cover topics as diverse as mathematics and astronomy to music and popular literature, and provide vivid pictures of life in ancient Dunhuang and along the Silk Roads. Most of the manuscripts and printed material are copies of Buddhist sutras. The paintings, textiles, and small sculptures found either depict the Buddha or connected to Buddhism in some way. This is the biggest archive of Buddhist material in the world.
Though most of the cave contents are Buddhist in nature, the cave also contained material relating to other religions, such as Daoism, Christianty, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, reflecting the diversity of the town and the region.
Paintings from Cave 17, collected by Marc Aurel Stein:
We do not know why Cave 17 was sealed up. The room was a memorial shrine to the monk Wu Hongbian, who died in 862 CE. He was the head of the monks of the Gansu corridor, a vast region stretching across 1000 kilometres, and commissioned the three-storey cave complex within the Mogao caves, of which Cave 17 was a part.
THE ARRIVAL OF MARC AUREL STEIN AND THE DISPERSAL OF THE CAVE’S TREASURES
Wang Yuanlu informed officials about his discovery, but apart from telling him to lock the cave and protect its contents, they took no further action. In early 1907, the explorer and archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein arrived in Dunhuang. His expediton, to Central Asia, was being funded by the Government of India and the British Museum. He soon heard of the treasures discovered in Cave 17. But at the time, Wang Yuanlu was away. Stein, keen to acquire some of the contents for his funders, returned a few months later to the Mogao Caves, where he met the monk, and became the first outsider to see Cave 17. Yuanlu did not want to sell any its contents, but eager to raise money for the preservation of the caves, allowed himself to be persuaded. Stein acquired a large number of manuscripts from the cave. These were sent to London, to be divided equally between the Government of India and the British Museum. Stein returned again in 1914 and bought some more of the cave’s contents.
Marc Aurel Stein was followed by other explorers and adventurers, all eager to acquire the treasures of Cave 17. In 1910, the remaining items were sent to Beijing, but many were lost or stolen along the way. Today, the contents of the Library Cave lie scattered across the world, including in France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the UK. The British Library alone holds some 30,000 manuscripts in addition to printed and other material from the cave.
THE INTERNATIONAL DUNHUANG PROGRAMME
In 1993, the British Library hosted a conference to bring together conservators and curators from all the major collections with holdings from Dunhuang, who agreed to work together to make their collections more accessible and help in their preservation. The International Dunhuang Programme (IDP) was founded the following year. It has grown to include 35 institutions from across the world, including the Dunhuang Academy in Jiuquan and the National Library of China.
To my mind, it is impossible to justify the dispersal of the contents of Cave 17, and China’s grief over the loss of these treasures is entirely understandable. The IDP is some consolation though, for it brings together online collections from Dunhuang and the Eastern Silk Roads, and provides access to images, information and learning resources through its online platform to anyone who might be interested in learning more.
The IDP’s online resources may be accessed here: International Dunhuang Programme.
The Mogao Caves bring to mind the Buddhist rock-cut caves in Ajanta near Aurangabad in Maharashtra (western India). The Ajanta caves, excavated between the 2nd century BCE and the 7th century CE, just precede the Mogao Caves. How are they connected? I cannot help but wonder.
A full post on the Ajanta caves follows shortly.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post. Please do write in via the comments box below.
Wow. I have never heard of the Mogoa Caves. Quite fascinating. Sadly suffering the same fate as most discoveries. Thank you for this education!
Amazing to read that it holds the largest collection of Buddhist material in the world! Good to know that it is being made available to browse online. Look forward to your next piece on Ajanta, where I adventured in recent years.