Mogao Caves

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Hi All,
I must say it was worth the trip all the way out here. The Mogao caves were something else. Getting a ticket wasn't the easiest of tasks, finding someone with correct information wasn't easy. I got a ticket through a travel agency but there were only tickets for non Chinese, Chinese tickets were booked up for 2 months!!
The caves are easy to get to with the bus for the train station taking people there.
Once inside the visitor centre I watched two films, one of the story of Dunhuang and the caves and another showing the inside of the caves. After the films it is a 5 minute ride on a coach to the caves themselves.
There was only two English speaking visitors so we had a quite intimate experience. Our guide took us into 8 caves some of which were almost 2000 years old. Although some of the paint has oxidized and gone black there were still, in some caves, parts with the colours before oxidization. It doesn't take much imagination to picture the sheer colour and wonder of the art work. Our guide compared on of the oldest statues we saw to the Mona Lisa, but the statue was 1300 years older!! The workmanship of ancient Chinese craftsman, artists and artisans is quite mind boggling. We also saw the hidden library where many old scriptures and sutras in various languages were discovered. The monk not really understanding there value sold many of them and they are now distributed around the world.
Our guide left us to our own devices to see the last caves, with the Giant Buddha, the reclining Buddha. There were 2 other caves which had been badly damaged and defaced by White Russian soldiers and people who lived in the caves to escape persecution.
A great experience, unfortunately no photography was permitted so there are no photos of the insides of the caves just the outside.

Enjoy the photos

Jah bless

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Photos

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Giant Buddha Pagoda

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Hidden library temple