Apsaras are a member of a class of celestial beings in Hindu and Buddhist culture. They were originally a type of female spirit of the clouds and waters,but,later play the role of a "nymph" or "fairy". They figure prominently in the sculptures,dance,literature and paintings of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures.
Gansu is a province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou,in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at 453,700 square kilometres (175,200 sq mi),Gansu lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus and borders Mongolia's Govi-Altai Province,Inner Mongolia and Ningxia to the north,Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west,Sichuan to the south and Shaanxi to the east. The Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province. Part of Gansu's territory is located in the Gobi Desert. The Qilian mountains are located in the south of the Province.
Dunhuang is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province,Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census,the city has a population of 186,027,though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and is best known for the nearby Mogao Caves.
The Mogao Caves,also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas,form a system of 500 temples 25 km (16 mi) southeast of the center of Dunhuang,an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road,in Gansu province,China. The caves may also be known as the Dunhuang Caves;however,this term is also used as a collective term to include other Buddhist cave sites in and around the Dunhuang area,such as the Western Thousand Buddha Caves,Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves,Yulin Caves,and Five Temple Caves. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years.
The Longmen Grottoes or Longmen Caves are some of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciples,they are located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of present-day Luoyang in Henan province,China. The images,many once painted,were carved as outside rock reliefs and inside artificial caves excavated from the limestone cliffs of the Xiangshan (香山) and Longmenshan,running east and west. The Yi River flows northward between them and the area used to be called Yique. The alternative name of "Dragon's Gate Grottoes" derives from the resemblance of the two hills that check the flow of the Yi River to the typical "Chinese gate towers" that once marked the entrance to Luoyang from the south. There are as many as 100,000 statues within the 2,345 caves,ranging from 1 inch (25 mm) to 57 feet (17 m) in height. The area also contains nearly 2,500 stelae and inscriptions,hence the name "Forest of Ancient Stelae",as well as over sixty Buddhist pagodas. Situated in a scenic natural environment,the caves were dug from a 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) stretch of cliff running along both banks of the river. 30% date from the Northern Wei and 60% from the Tang dynasty,caves from other periods accounting for less than 10% of the total. Starting with the Northern Wei dynasty in 493 AD,patrons and donors included emperors,Wu Zetian,members of the royal family,other rich families,generals,and religious groups.
Langdon Warner (1881–1955) was an American archaeologist and art historian specializing in East Asian art. He was a professor at Harvard and the Curator of Oriental Art at Harvard's Fogg Museum. He is reputed to be one of the models for Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones. As an explorer/agent at the turn of the 20th century,he studied the Silk Road. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1927.
Wei,known in historiography as the Western Wei,was an imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei. One of the Northern dynasties during the era of the Northern and Southern dynasties,it ruled the western part of northern China from 535 to 557. As with the Northern Wei dynasty that preceded it,the ruling family of the Western Wei were members of the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei.
The Yulin Caves is a Buddhist cave temple site in Guazhou County,Gansu Province,China. The site is located some 100 km (62 mi) east of the oasis town of Dunhuang and the Mogao Caves. It takes its name from the elm trees lining the Yulin River,which flows through the site and separates the two cliffs from which the caves have been excavated. The forty-two caves house some 250 polychrome statues and 4,200 m2 (45,000 sq ft) of wall paintings,dating from the Tang dynasty to the Yuan dynasty. The site was among the first to be designated for protection in 1961 as a Major National Historical and Cultural Site. In 2008 the Yulin Grottoes were submitted for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Chinese Section of the Silk Road.
The Western Thousand Buddha Caves is a Buddhist cave temple site in Dunhuang,Gansu Province,China. The site is located approximately 35 km southwest of the urban centre and about the same distance from the Yangguan Pass;the area served as a staging post for travellers on the Silk Road. It is the western counterpart of the Mogao Caves,also known as the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" after the founding monk Yuezun's vision in 366 of "golden radiance in the form of a thousand Buddhas". The caves were excavated from the cliff that runs along the north bank of the Dang River. A number have been lost to floods and collapse;some forty are still extant. Twenty-two decorated caves house 34 polychrome statues and 800 m2 of wall paintings,dating from the Northern Wei to the late-Yuan and early-Ming dynasties. The site was included within the 1961 designation of the Mogao Caves as a Major National Historical and Cultural Site.
The huluqin is a plucked string instrument. It is a four-stringed lute with a gourd body and is used by the Naxi people and Zhuang people of Yunnan. Sometimes,huluqin play with instruments of Tibetan dodar music from Labrang Monastery,Gansu
The Tang dynasty (618-907) was one of the most prosperous dynasties in Chinese history. During this period,people from Central Asia frequently traded with people who lived in the Tang capital Chang'an through the Silk Road.
The Dunhuang Research Academy,originally the National Research Institute on Dunhuang Art,is a "national comprehensive institution" responsible for overseeing the Mogao Caves,a UNESCO World Heritage Site located near Dunhuang in Gansu,China. Established in 1944 by the Nationalist government,it continues to oversee day-to-day management of the site as well as preservation and research projects.
The Tiantishan Caves are a series of rock cut Buddhist cave temples in the Liangzhou District of Wuwei,Gansu,northwest China. Excavated from the eastern cliffs of the Huangyang River (黃羊河) in the Qilian Mountains from the time of the Northern Liang,carving,decoration and subsequent modification of the caves continued through the Northern Wei and Tang to the Qing dynasty. The complex is identified with the Liangzhou Caves opened during the time of Juqu Mengxun "one hundred li to the south of Liangzhou",as recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms and Fayuan Zhulin. The name Tiantishan consists of three Chinese characters that literally translate as "Ladder to Heaven Mountain".
The Five Temple Caves is a series of rock cut Buddhist caves in Subei Mongol Autonomous County,Gansu,northwest China. The complex once numbered twenty-two caves but over the centuries the number was reduced to five,of which four remain today,in a gorge on the left bank of the Danghe River. On the basis of their structure and iconography,one of the caves is dated to the Northern Wei,the other three to the Five Dynasties and Song. The complex lies some 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the south of the Mogao Caves,and together with these,the Western Thousand Buddha Caves,Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves,and Yulin Caves,is one of the five grotto sites in the vicinity of Dunhuang managed by the Dunhuang Academy. In 2013,in recognition of their significance to China,the Five Temple Caves were designated by SACH a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.
The Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves is a series of rock cut Buddhist caves in Guazhou County,Gansu,northwest China. Of the twenty-three caves excavated from the conglomerate rock,eight have murals and sculptures dating from the Western Xia and Yuan dynasty;many of the statues were reworked during the Qing dynasty. The caves extend in two tiers along the cliffs that flank both sides of a now dry river gorge,fourteen on the west bank and nine on the east. Together with the Mogao Caves,Western Thousand Buddha Caves,Yulin Caves,and Five Temple Caves,the Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves is one of the five grotto sites in the vicinity of Dunhuang managed by the Dunhuang Academy.
Fan Jinshi is a Chinese archaeologist and heritage specialist who served as director of the Dunhuang Research Academy between 1998 and 2014. She spends most of her life in Mogao Caves,Dunhuang,currently working as an honorary president and professional researcher in Dunhuang Research Academy,as well as a part-time professor and a doctoral supervisor in Lanzhou University. Fan began working in Dunhuang in 1963,at the age of 25. She has been venerated as "Daughter of Dunhuang" for her over 50 years of devotion to studying and preserving the Dunhuang Grottoes. She was an early proponent of the Dunhuang Academy in contemporary China,and pioneered a series of effective preservation approaches for grottos.
Yingluo is a ring-shaped neck ornament or fashion jewellery of Buddhist origins in ancient China with its earliest prototypes having roots in ancient India. In China,the yingluo was first used as a Buddhist ornament in Buddhist decorative arts,including sculptures and paintings such as the Dunhuang frescoes. The yingluo depicted as decorative Buddhist art elements and was later imitated and turned into an actual elegant necklace by the Tang dynasty. It was then widely adopted as a classical necklace in Chinese society for centuries and as a head-wear. It was also used the hanfu of Chinese women where it was used as a neck ornament or jewellery,and was especially favoured by the Chinese court ladies in ancient times. The yingluo could also be used as a textile pattern which would applied on Chinese clothing. The yingluo gradually lost popularity as it lost its appeal due to the changes in people's sense of aesthetic and aesthetic needs in modern times. However,it currently continues to be worn as a common modern-day hanfu accessory by Hanfu enthusiasts since the Hanfu movement and can appear in various styles and materials.
The Western Paradise Illustration,also known as the Western Pure Land Illustration,is a Buddhist mural painting located on the south wall of Cave 220 of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang,Gansu Province,China. The 5.3 m × 3.5 m artwork was painted in the early Tang Dynasty and funded by the "Zhai" family. Its style is similar to that of the ancient Chinese painter Wu Daozi. The Western Paradise Illustration features the earliest and the most spectacular scenes of the Pure Land among all mural paintings in the Mogao Caves.
The Kneeling Attendant Bodhisattva is a late 7th century,polychromed Buddhist sculpture,dating to the Tang dynasty,depicting a kneeling bodhisattva. Once a part of a set of eight figures,depicting six bodhisattvas and two disciples of the Buddha,it was once a part of the Mogao Caves,but is currently on display at the Harvard Art Museum.
Rain of Flowers Along the Silk Road is a 1979 Chinese dance drama by the Gansu Song and Dance Ensemble. Drawing extensively from the frescoes in the Mogao Caves in its movements and set design,it follows a painter and his daughter over the course of several years as they befriend a Persian merchant and topple a local magistrate.
