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Posted On Wednesday, September 16, 2015 at
at
1:51 AM
by Alvin
Well, some towns sure got lucky and Dunhuang (敦煌) had been blessed with such luck - agreeable dry and sunny climate, fertile soils, plenty of produce, oasis springs fed by the snow-capped mountains from afar and of course the site was picked by a Buddhist monk from around 200 A.D. as the destiny for the most famous, colorful, artistic, contents-rich Buddhist grotto site the world had ever known - Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟). The site prospered across numerous dynasties over a thousand years and top-notched master craftsman were hard at work to create the 700 caves, 2,500 clay larger-than-life statues, 45,000 square meters of wall paintings and 50,000 rolls of Buddhist scriptures and other documentation - a matchless feat of mankind.
Dunhuang did have its sorry tales - the un-matched stylistic grottoes were looked after by an ignorant monk in around 1,900 A.D. and the grottoes were thus easily negotiated (i.e. raided) by the Indiana Jones of yester-years and loads of priceless artifacts were therefore scattered around the world's museums (namely - British, French, Russian, Japanese) as a result. Sad as the tale was, the Chinese Government now rectified this unfortunate mistake and had paid tremendous effort in the preservation in these grottoes. For starters, pre-booked daily entrance would be kept to a maximum of 6,000 visitors and only a few of the caves would be opened to public. We spent a whole day at the site - viewing 2 stunning movies at a 360 degrees theater, visiting the caves themselves, the museum and subsequently chilling out under the well-maintained tree canopy to soak up the unique atmosphere of this renowned site.
Next up was the wonderful moon-shaped oasis spring (月牙泉) of Mingsha Shan (鳴沙山) - the oasis spring sprouted up from the middle of the desert and had never been known to dry up. The setting of the moon-shaped oasis spring was spectacular as it was located in a trough surrounded by giant sand dunes and there were large patches of greenery all over Mingsha Shan as the underground spring water went to work to provide the much needed moisture in the desert. Dunhuang city was only 7KM away from the deserts (巴丹吉林沙漠 and 塔克拉瑪幹沙漠) and incidentally, the name Mingsha Shan came from the fact that when the wind picked up, the sand could be heard to swirl and collide and created the sound of thunder claps. We also spent an extra day in this lovely and clean oasis city by visiting the temple of 雷音寺 as well as taking relaxing strolls along the city river of 黨河, passing many of the famous statues of Flying Fairies (飛天 - 佛教中天帝司樂之神). Ah ... such bliss !
Well, some towns sure got lucky and Dunhuang (敦煌) had been blessed with such luck - agreeable dry and sunny climate, fertile soils, plenty of produce, oasis springs fed by the snow-capped mountains from afar and of course the site was picked by a Buddhist monk from around 200 A.D. as the destiny for the most famous, colorful, artistic, contents-rich Buddhist grotto site the world had ever known - Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟). The site prospered across numerous dynasties over a thousand years and top-notched master craftsman were hard at work to create the 700 caves, 2,500 clay larger-than-life statues, 45,000 square meters of wall paintings and 50,000 rolls of Buddhist scriptures and other documentation - a matchless feat of mankind.
Dunhuang did have its sorry tales - the un-matched stylistic grottoes were looked after by an ignorant monk in around 1,900 A.D. and the grottoes were thus easily negotiated (i.e. raided) by the Indiana Jones of yester-years and loads of priceless artifacts were therefore scattered around the world's museums (namely - British, French, Russian, Japanese) as a result. Sad as the tale was, the Chinese Government now rectified this unfortunate mistake and had paid tremendous effort in the preservation in these grottoes. For starters, pre-booked daily entrance would be kept to a maximum of 6,000 visitors and only a few of the caves would be opened to public. We spent a whole day at the site - viewing 2 stunning movies at a 360 degrees theater, visiting the caves themselves, the museum and subsequently chilling out under the well-maintained tree canopy to soak up the unique atmosphere of this renowned site.
Next up was the wonderful moon-shaped oasis spring (月牙泉) of Mingsha Shan (鳴沙山) - the oasis spring sprouted up from the middle of the desert and had never been known to dry up. The setting of the moon-shaped oasis spring was spectacular as it was located in a trough surrounded by giant sand dunes and there were large patches of greenery all over Mingsha Shan as the underground spring water went to work to provide the much needed moisture in the desert. Dunhuang city was only 7KM away from the deserts (巴丹吉林沙漠 and 塔克拉瑪幹沙漠) and incidentally, the name Mingsha Shan came from the fact that when the wind picked up, the sand could be heard to swirl and collide and created the sound of thunder claps. We also spent an extra day in this lovely and clean oasis city by visiting the temple of 雷音寺 as well as taking relaxing strolls along the city river of 黨河, passing many of the famous statues of Flying Fairies (飛天 - 佛教中天帝司樂之神). Ah ... such bliss !
