What is Mogao Grottoes and one of the three major grottoes in China? In which province are Mogao Grottoes located?

Do you like to travel? Going to Mogao Grottoes is a good choice. There are many books in Mogao Grottoes, including religious documents of Buddhism, Taoism and other religions, literary works, contracts, account books, official documents and other secular documents. The discovery of Dunhuang art is well-known both at home and abroad. It has extremely important research value for the supplement and collation of ancient Chinese documents. So what are the three major grottoes in China that Mogao Grottoes is called together with? In which province is Mogao Grottoes located? Let's take a look at the introduction of Encyclopedia Knowledge Network below!

Contents of this article

1. What is Mogao Grottoes and one of the three major grottoes in China?

2. In which province are the Mogao Grottoes located?

3. How was Mogao Grottoes built?

4. The difference between Mogao Grottoes tickets and tickets

What are the three major grottoes in China?

The Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, the Yungang Grottoes and the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang are the three major grottoes in China. The Yungang Grottoes, the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang and the Maijishan Grottoes are collectively known as the four major grottoes in China. They are giant grotto art landscapes featuring Chinese Buddhist culture.

The Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang are the largest existing "world art treasure house" and have been listed as a world cultural heritage by UNESCO;

The Yungang Grottoes are located in Datong, Shanxi Province, and represent the outstanding Buddhist cave art in China from the 5th to 6th centuries AD. The Five Tan Yao Grottoes, with their rigorous and unified layout and design, are classic masterpieces of the first peak period of Chinese Buddhist art.

The grottoes and niches in the Longmen area represent the largest and most outstanding plastic arts from the late Northern Wei Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty in China, and represent the pinnacle of Chinese stone carving art.

The Maijishan Grottoes are located in Tianshui City, Gansu Province. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit and a world-famous art treasure house, known as the Oriental Sculpture Museum.

In which province are Mogao Grottoes located?

Mogao Grottoes is a national key cultural relic protection unit, commonly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves. It is located in Dunhuang at the western end of the Hexi Corridor and is famous for its exquisite murals and statues. It was first built in the Former Qin period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, and has been built up to a huge scale after the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Western Xia, Yuan and other dynasties. There are 735 caves, 40,000 to 50,000 square meters of murals, and 2,415 clay colored sculptures. It is the largest and most content-rich Buddhist art site in the world. In modern times, the Sutra Cave was discovered, which contains more than 50,000 ancient cultural relics, and a discipline dedicated to the study of the Sutra Cave and Dunhuang art has been derived - Dunhuang Studies. However, Mogao Grottoes has suffered a lot of man-made damage in modern times, and a large number of cultural relics have been lost, and its integrity has been seriously damaged. In 1961, Mogao Grottoes was announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as one of the first batch of national key cultural relic protection units. In 1987, Mogao Grottoes was listed as a World Cultural Heritage.

How were Mogao Grottoes built?

Mogao Grottoes were first built during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. According to the Tang Dynasty book "Li Kerang's Stele on the Reconstruction of the Mogao Grottoes Buddha Shrine", in the second year of the Jianyuan Period of the Former Qin Dynasty (366), the monk Le Zun passed by this mountain and suddenly saw a golden light shining, as if thousands of Buddhas appeared, so he dug the first cave on the rock wall. After that, Zen Master Faliang and others continued to build caves and practice Zen here, which was called "Mogao Grottoes", meaning "the high place in the desert". In later generations, because "Mo" and "Mo" are interchangeable, it was renamed "Mogao Grottoes". Another saying is: Buddhists say that building Buddhist caves has immeasurable merits. Mo means impossible or nothing. The meaning of Mogao Grottoes is that there is no higher practice than building Buddhist caves.

The difference between Mogao Grottoes tickets and AB tickets

Type A tickets allow you to watch the theme digital movie "Millennium Mogao" and the dome movie "Dream Buddha Palace", take round-trip transportation to Mogao Grottoes in groups of 25 to 30 people with professional tour guides, visit the eight open caves of Mogao Grottoes during the peak season, and visit the Dunhuang Grottoes Cultural Relics Protection and Research Exhibition Center, Dunhuang Sutra Cave Exhibition Hall, Dunhuang Academy History Exhibition Hall, Dunhuang Academy Art Museum, etc. for free. You need to make an appointment online at the Dunhuang Academy in advance.

Category B tickets do not include the viewing of two digital movies, but allow visits to four open caves of Mogao Grottoes during the peak season, as well as free visits to the Dunhuang Grottoes Cultural Relics Protection and Research Exhibition Center, Dunhuang Academy History Exhibition Hall, Dunhuang Academy Art Museum, etc.