Welsh Davids Silk Road and beyond: 1 to 3 July

We left Turpan at 6.40am travelling along the Gobi Desert with a long day in-front of us. On the way we passed huge solar and wind farms (said to have up to 10,000 turbines), so big that when they were built the power system cold not cope with the power generated when the state had to step in and regulate the industry. Even though it was the state which wanted more green power in he first place. We arrived at Dun Huang at 7.30 pm and settled into the Fei Tian Hotel for two nights, the itinerary being changed as the third night was to be a bush camp at some sand dunes. This was subsequently changed again as the sand dunes are now a gravel pit so we had an extra night in the hotel.

Part of a wind farm

Scenery

The following morning we all went to the Magao caves. The Caves or Mogao Grottoes, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddha, form a system of 492 temples 25 km (16 mi) south-east of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road. Dunhuang itself was a frontier garrison outpost in the Hang Dynasty 111 BC and was an important gateway on the Silk Road to the West. Originally the caves were used for shelter and meditation then larger temples and monastic lecture halls were built. Every available inch of the walls and figures were painted, some of the figures being cut out of the stone and then covered in clay which was easier to paint on, other being made totally of clay. The caves were established from the 4th to the 14th century and were generally forgotten when the fortunes of the town decreased due to the increased traffic by sea between East and West. The face of the cliff into which the caves had been built slowly collapsed exposing the cave openings to the sand of the Gobi Desert. The blowing sand damaged the frescos and statues and this was further compounded over time by people living in the caves, lighting fires from which the smoke damaged the paintings and then keeping their animals in the caves. Then there were the various armies that were camped at the caves, such as the White Russians (in 1920), who wrote graffiti on the walls and took no care of the paintings. I would have thought that the caves would have been damaged during the Cultural Revolution but apparently this was not so as the Chines revolutionaries were not interested in being at Dunhuang because it was out in the provinces and far away from the cities of influence such as Beijing and Shanghai.

In 1900 a monk was tapping the wall of one cave when he realised that it gave a hollow sound. Behind this wall he found over 50,000 documents, hundreds of paintings, textiles and artefacts. He asked the government of the time for money to preserve the items but they were not interested with the result that in 1907 he sold many of the documents so as to have money to repair the caves. The documents are now in the British Museum, the Louvre in France and in New Delhi.

The original look of the caves (borrowed photo)

Some caves today

Views of the front of the caves today. Most have been plastered over or have a flase wall in-front so as to protect the original surfaces

Cave paintings (borrowed photographs)

We had been told that no cameras were allowed at the cave site but this was a mis-communication as what were should have been told was that while no photographs could be taken in the caves they could be taken outside the caves. I went back there the following morning, by local bus costing Y8 instead of Y150 by taxi, to have another look at the place and to take photos outside the caves. During the first visit we had an English speaking guide, were all issued with a earpiece so we could hear what she had to say, and visited eight caves, the number seen on a normal tour. An extra cave was opened for us to see and the guide explained that extra caves were opened depending on the number of visitors so that overcrowding was avoided but only eight caves per group were normally visited.

Inside the caves was really fantastic with every part of the surface painted. The paintings show the development of Chinese art throughout the ages especially where they were influenced by the Indians, Greeks and the West. Most paintings also told a story, sometimes fact, sometimes fiction. Where there were statutes they were either of clay or cut out of the rock and covered in clay to make the painting easier. I was intrigued to notice that one statue had three fingers missing and on the hand could be seen metal pins which had been used to strengthen the fitting of the fingers to the hand. Also that the clay had straw mixed in with it to give it strength. The most remarkable sight was on entering one cave to see a sitting Buddha 30 metre high, the second highest in China.

One evening I went to the acrobatic pantomime "Dunhuang Goddess" and saw a fantastic show. Based on stories from the Magao Cave murals, the performance was created in 2007 and involves acrobatics, music, dance and martial art.

Scenes from the Dunhuang Goddess