An exhibition of 67 relics from the Mogao
Grottoes at Dunhuang, Gansu
Province, will open in Taiwan on March 25, featuring 26 Grade
One items.
The four-month-long exhibition is cosponsored by the Dunhuang
Academy and Taiwan's University of Fine Arts. The Taipei History
Museum will host the display for two months before it moves to
Kaohsiung for another two months.
The Mogao Grottoes form a system of 492 underground temples near
the northwestern city of Dunhuang, once a strategic site on the
Silk Road. The first cave temple is believed to have been built in
366 AD, with the number eventually growing to more than 1,000.
Between the 4th and 14th centuries, the grottoes became a
repository of scriptures and Buddhist art. The murals for which
Mogao is now best known cover an area of some 42,000 square
meters.
The grottoes were abandoned in the 14th century and forgotten
until 1900, when a Taoist priest named Wang Yuanlu discovered the
enormous collection of ancient manuscripts that had been hidden
there.
Today, the site is an important tourist attraction and the
subject of archeological studies. It was inscribed on the UNESCO
list of World Heritage Sites in 1987.
(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2005)