Dunhuang is a city that has stood in the desert for over two thousand years. The Silk Road turned it into a cultural melting pot where East met West, giving birth to the world-renowned "Eastern Treasure Trove of Art"—the Mogao Caves. Today, even after the ravages of sand and wind, the door to this world of cross-cultural communication remains open, shining brightly under the protection and legacy of China’s rich and profound history.
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00:44 Desert jewel, Dunhuang.
00:47 Beginning in 121 BC, China's Han dynasty
00:59 established four prefectures along the Hexi Corridor--
01:03 Wuwei, Changye, Jiuqian, and Dunhuang.
01:08 Cutting from east to west, they separated the Xiongnu
01:11 in the north from the Qiyang in the south.
01:14 Continuing west from here and crossing the Palmier Mountains,
01:18 one would stand on the threshold of the whole Western world.
01:22 On this key passage connecting the west,
01:25 Dunhuang was the western most stronghold.
01:31 This region was historically inhabited
01:33 by the Qiyang, Wusun, Rouchu, and Xiongnu peoples.
01:37 The ancient Rouchu named this place Dunhong.
01:42 The original meaning of this name
01:47 was lost after the Rouchu language disappeared.
01:52 Dunhong later became known as Dunhuang, which
01:56 means grand glory in Chinese.
01:57 Various traditions and rituals were
02:04 carried on from the Qiyang to the Qiyang.
02:08 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:10 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:13 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:15 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:17 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:20 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:22 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:25 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:28 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:31 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:34 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:37 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:40 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:43 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:46 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:49 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:52 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:55 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
02:58 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:01 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:04 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:07 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:10 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:13 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:16 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:19 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:22 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:25 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:28 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:31 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:34 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:37 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:40 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:43 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:46 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:49 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:52 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:55 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
03:58 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:01 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:04 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:07 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:10 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:13 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:16 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:19 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:22 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:25 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:28 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:31 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:34 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:37 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:40 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:43 The Qiyang was a place of worship for the gods.
04:46 The city walls were surrounded by a trench or moat,
04:51 about 14 meters wide and 3 meters deep.
04:55 Water came from the Denghe River at the city's southwestern corner,
04:59 then split in two directions around the city
05:02 before meeting and flowing out at the city's northeastern corner.
05:06 A lower enclosure was added between the main city walls and the moat,
05:10 not unusual for ancient cities in this region.
05:13 Inside the city, there was a sub-city
05:16 that served as the administrative and governmental district.
05:20 The peripheral area was an outer city
05:23 that primarily housed commercial and residential zones.
05:28 Outside the city, there were four cities,
05:32 the North, the East, the South and the West.
05:39 These cities were basically the places where the four cities of the East and the West were located.
05:47 Around the outer city, there were also temples devoted to various gods
05:52 who worked together to protect and bless the land.
05:56 [music]
06:01 Envoy's merchants monks people met and stopped over in Dunhuang
06:05 and also started off from here.
06:07 The ancient Silk Road winds between Dunhuang and the Yumen Pass.
06:11 For more than 2,000 years,
06:13 countless caravans of mules, horses and camels laden with goods traveled along it.
06:19 Camels have long been seen as a symbol of the Silk Road.
06:23 Twin-humped Bactrian camels are primarily used in the Dunhuang area.
06:28 They can carry loads of up to 200 kilograms,
06:31 traveling nonstop for four or five days.
06:34 They can smell water from kilometers away,
06:36 predict sandstorms and navigate previously taken routes.
06:40 These skills made these animals the true ships of the desert,
06:44 helping people bridge East and West.
06:48 [music]
06:52 In the 2nd century BC in Western Eurasia,
06:55 Rome conquered Macedonia and took control of the whole of Greece.
07:00 In Central Asia, the south of the Caspian Sea was dominated by the Parthian Empire.
07:06 In Eastern Asia, there was the powerful Chinese Western Han Empire.
07:11 [music]
07:13 While to the west of this empire,
07:15 the nomadic Xiongyu and Qiyang settled in the north and south.
07:19 The Hushi Corridor, nourished by melted waters from the Qilin Mountains,
07:23 was the only passage from China's central plains to the western regions.
07:29 Further west, the route was beset with formidable hardships and dangers.
07:35 [music]
07:38 The unforgiving Takalamen Desert,
07:41 between the towering Tianshan Mountains to the north
07:45 and lofty Kunlun Mountains to the south.
07:50 To cross the natural hazards and continue westward,
07:54 people had to skirt along the oasis area at the foot of the mountains.
07:59 These paths from oasis to oasis became the earliest trade routes.
08:06 In this mural painting in 138 BC,
08:11 Chengxian, a Han Dynasty ambassador, was sent to the western regions.
08:16 His destination was Greater Rouzhi, located in present-day Afghanistan.
08:21 Decades later, he traveled westward again to the Wusun Kingdom.
08:26 Chengxian's two visits to the western regions
08:29 brought these routes to the Han Dynasty's attention.
08:34 Yimen Pass and Yangguan Pass were built outside Dunhuang,
08:38 at the westernmost end of the Huxi Corridor.
08:41 Dunhuang, controlling the two passes,
08:44 became the key center for the Han Dynasty's relations with the western regions.
08:51 It is a sort of key point on, you know, it's where the Silk Roads diverge, isn't it?
08:56 The northern route and the southern route.
08:59 They split just after Dunhuang and they come back together at Dunhuang.
09:03 So anyone coming in from the northern or southern Silk Road
09:07 inevitably passes through Dunhuang.
09:09 So it's a stop for everyone from almost all the countries of Central Asia
09:16 and the Near East and one or two Europeans.
09:20 Beginning in the 2nd century BC, beacon towers and sections of the Great Wall
09:27 were built in the north of the Huxi Corridor.
09:29 The Han Dynasty also set up post and communication systems
09:33 consisting of post roads and courier stations.
09:36 The Pattern Guidelines of Xiazhou records 19 courier stations
09:44 under Dunhuang's jurisdiction in the first half of the 8th century AD.
09:49 These courier stations provided material supplies, accommodation,
09:53 consultation and other services for travelers.
09:56 They also received government officials, merchants,
09:59 transmitted government decrees and documents.
10:01 The courier stations were often built at well-watered traffic hubs.
10:05 The Shenshen Post House site, 64 kilometers east of Dunhuang,
10:12 was a key post on the major route connecting China's Han and Tang Empires
10:17 to the western regions.
10:19 It is also the largest and earliest ruins
10:23 of a courier station discovered in China to date.
10:27 More than 70,000 cultural relics have been unearthed here,
10:32 including over 20,000 inscribed bamboo slips,
10:35 which detail the postal system and traffic
10:39 during the Han Dynasty rule from the 2nd century BC onward.
10:45 The trade caravans passing through Dunhuang
10:51 contain Persians, Turks and Tajiks,
10:53 as well as nomadic peoples such as Xiongnu, Rouzhi, Wusun and Hehe.
10:58 Also among them?
11:00 The most active traders were the Sogdians from Central Asia.
11:04 From the 4th century AD at least,
11:08 we see this splash of Sogdian culture all over the world.
11:13 And the first reference to them appears in Dunhuang.
11:18 In 1907 at the beacon site 90 km northwest of Dunhuang,
11:23 British explorer Mark O'Rale Steyn found 8 letters written in Sogdian,
11:29 dating back to around 313 AD,
11:32 the most complete of which is letter number 2.
11:36 It was sent by a Sogdian merchant named Nanai Vandak.
11:43 He wrote to his partner, Insamarkand,
11:46 describing the situation when the Xiongnu overran Luoyang.
11:50 He also mentioned traveling from Dunhuang to Qincheng,
11:54 modern-day Lanshu, to sell linen.
11:57 And he wrote about several trade funds
12:00 and the distribution of 32 musk pouches.
12:03 From this evidence, it's safe to say that by at least the 4th century AD,
12:09 Sogdians had trade outlets in Dunhuang and other cities
12:13 and had established several set trade routes.
12:17 However, the route to wealth was always precarious.
12:23 Extreme natural conditions, war, and bandits
12:27 could turn any journey into a risky adventure.
12:31 On some of the most deserted and lifeless sections of the road,
12:36 travelers made their way by following the trail of bones
12:39 from fallen men and beasts.
12:43 Beyond Yumen Pass lies an extremely dangerous and uninhabited land.
12:49 The bizarre Yardan landforms in the dark
12:53 could induce horrifying hallucinations.
12:56 The 30-plus degree temperature difference between day and night
13:01 caused rocks to burst, emitting eerie, ghost-like howls.
13:05 As illustrated by the murals in the Mu'ergao caves,
13:09 caravans on the Silk Road often traveled together
13:12 in small groups or large throngs of hundreds of people.
13:16 There were often monks, scholars, and craftsmen among them.
13:21 They had to pass through the jurisdictional oases along the way.
13:26 On top of maintaining relations with all parties,
13:29 they must guard against rampant thieves.
13:35 The Tang mural in the Mu'ergao caves depicted Sogdian merchants
13:40 being intercepted by thieves with knives.
13:43 The elder man, standing in the front and trying to negotiate,
13:50 may be the caravan's leader.
13:53 On the ground lie goods and bolts of silk.
13:56 Beside them is a fallen purse, treasured by merchants.
14:02 In the 7th century AD, Tang Buddhist monk Xian Zeng,
14:06 on his journey to the West, witnessed dozens of Western merchants
14:10 frequently being robbed and killed by thieves.
14:14 The monk's body was brought to Dunhuang for repair.
14:18 Dunhuang was a trading port city in the Central Plains.
14:26 Many Western merchants stopped in Dunhuang.
14:30 Only a small number of them went to Chang'an.
14:34 In this situation,
14:36 the trade in Dunhuang suddenly flourished.
14:42 The market development in Dunhuang was in the Han Dynasty.
14:46 The most prosperous period of trade in Dunhuang
14:50 began in the Han Dynasty.
14:52 In the Tang Dynasty,
14:54 the scale of trade was even higher.
14:58 Merchants were increasingly in demand.
15:03 Merchants who traded in different regions
15:08 had to apply for government-issued travel permits
15:12 and were obliged to follow specified routes.
15:16 These permits detailed the traveling party
15:19 and goods carried to be inspected.
15:22 This allowed the effective management of population flow
15:25 and prevented tax evasion and smuggling.
15:28 This is a 1,300-year-old travel permit
15:31 of a Sogdian merchant unearthed in Turpan, China.
15:34 It shows the rigorous legal system of customs clearance
15:37 and bears witness to the prosperity of short-distance trade
15:40 along the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty.
15:43 Dunhuang is a small border city,
15:46 but it has a large area of exchange.
15:50 It extends to the Mongolian Plateau,
15:52 the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,
15:55 and the entire Western region,
15:58 including the Central Romans.
16:00 When oral stain followed Marco Polo's footsteps
16:04 from Lobupo to Dunhuang in the early 20th century,
16:08 he still encountered the occasional camel caravan
16:12 and merchants trudging along the ancient Silk Road.
16:16 A lot of people didn't travel from A all the way to B.
16:22 They didn't go from China to Rome, for example.
16:25 People tended only to do little bits.
16:27 You know, you would trade from this oasis to that oasis,
16:31 then your goods would be handed on.
16:33 So it's the materials that did, you know.
16:36 The silk goes from one end to the other.
16:39 Those short trips were connected into long journeys.
16:45 The routes flourished or declined
16:48 with human migration, warfare, or changes of regime,
16:52 weaving a huge web over land and sea.
16:59 There are so many things that are transferred via the Silk Road.
17:04 Ideas, people, religions, commodities,
17:09 vegetables, horses, foodstuffs, jewels, and so on.
17:14 It's the most fantastic exchange of material, culture, and people.
17:22 According to documents found in the library cave,
17:26 a Sogdian merchant named Kang Shuhua
17:29 made a donation to Chang Qinxian, chief monk at the monastery,
17:33 for a copy of the Mahaprajna Paramita Sutra.
17:37 The donation included three silver plates weighing 1.3 kilograms,
17:42 18.6 tons of wheat and millet,
17:46 and 2 kilograms of white powder used for cosmetics.
17:55 The main commodity was silk.
17:58 You see, besides the Chinese silk,
18:01 there was also Chinese and Asian silk,
18:04 such as Hu silk, Fan silk,
18:07 and the silk from the easternmost region,
18:11 the silk from the Korean Peninsula,
18:15 such as the silk from East Rome,
18:18 the silk from the western regions,
18:21 the silk from the Persian mountains,
18:25 the silk from Persian herbs,
18:28 and the spices from India.
18:31 All of these were available in the Eastern market.
18:34 What did Europeans give to the Eastern and Middle Eastern markets?
18:43 Slaves, steel for weapons,
18:46 and wood, that is, coarse-milled products
18:51 in exchange for refined and luxurious products.
18:55 As European economy grew,
19:01 the demand for Oriental luxury goods increased.
19:07 And what were the most popular commodities?
19:10 Spices.
19:13 It is a dream product.
19:17 It's very lightweight.
19:19 You would get a lot into the hold of your ship.
19:22 The markup would be huge
19:24 because you'd sell it out in small quantities.
19:27 It was kind of like a luxury product,
19:30 particularly as we move into the high Middle Ages.
19:33 You know, you start to get a wealthy middle class.
19:36 People would pay quite a lot of money.
19:39 Persian brocades mentioned in Tang Dynasty manuscripts
19:42 found in Dunhuang can be seen in pictures of the Venetian doge.
19:48 The lotus pattern can be found both in the Mogao Caves
19:53 and the Virgin Mary's splendid garb.
19:57 Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan
20:02 colors the perfect sky in Dunhuang murals
20:06 and offers the purest blue in Titian's paintings.
20:11 These seemingly unrelated remote places
20:14 were all connected through material goods
20:17 changing our way of life.
20:20 I was lucky to encounter the Silk Road
20:25 through Dunhuang manuscripts, the Diamond Sutra,
20:28 the world's earliest dated printed book.
20:31 That has this colophon at the back
20:34 that says "6-8 A.D."
20:36 So there is no other book in the world that is earlier.
20:41 You know, it's incredibly long, nearly 25 feet long.
20:44 It's a huge enterprise.
20:46 It's very elegantly printed, and it's a fantastic--
20:49 it's very beautiful too, and China should be extremely proud of that.
20:54 And when you look at the manuscripts
20:56 and you find that you've got ones in Indian languages
20:59 and different scripts and Tibetan and Cotonese,
21:02 you see different people, different ideas,
21:05 I mean, in terms of philosophy, in terms of religion,
21:08 and also different style.
21:10 You realize what a kind of amazing,
21:13 kind of melting pot that the place is.
21:16 By crossing rivers, mountains, and deserts,
21:19 these languages tell us that the ancient Silk Road
21:22 was not only a road for trade and arts,
21:25 but also a road for communicating knowledge and ideas.
21:31 For thousands of years, painters have drawn
21:34 a complete picture of civilization
21:36 in the silence and desolation surrounding Dunhuang.
21:39 Flowing between the Sanwei Mountain
21:41 and the desert of the Mingsha Mountain
21:44 is the Tangtien River.
21:46 Along its west bank, a 1,600-meter-long cliff
21:49 running south-north is inlaid with 735 Buddhist caves.
21:54 In 366 A.D., a traveling monk named Ye Qin
21:58 dug the first cave in the cliff face.
22:01 For 1,000 years until the 14th century,
22:04 different people at different times thereafter
22:07 all left their mark on the face of these cliffs.
22:11 "Yao Yan," which means "wonderful cliff."
22:15 So we went at 6 o'clock in the morning,
22:18 and so I saw the sun come up in the east.
22:22 It is directly opposite the cliff.
22:25 It was quite a magical moment to imagine the silence,
22:31 the beauty of the light coming into the caves,
22:35 and you could see that it was a very special place.
22:39 These variously shaped caves are like time capsules,
22:46 preserving 45,000 square meters of murals
22:50 and 2,415 painted sculptures
22:53 that recorded the ups and downs in Dunhuang City
22:57 and its people for over 1,000 years.
23:01 The significance of the town actually lies outside the town.
23:05 It's a hidden treasure, you know,
23:07 that you have to go into each cave,
23:09 and then each cave is a complete revelation.
23:12 It shows us the development of religious painting
23:15 and Buddhist painting in China
23:18 from sort of 300 up to 1,000 or so.
23:22 You have this incredibly long period,
23:24 about 1,000 years of religious art, perfectly preserved.
23:28 You know, the atmosphere is dry, it's safe.
23:31 The paintings are simply miraculous.
23:34 We can meet once more with the ancient people of Dunhuang
23:40 by looking at these portraits and inscriptions.
23:48 Cave 285 is the earliest existing cave
23:53 that can be dated back exactly.
23:55 On the upper side of the north wall of the cave,
23:58 there are 7 sets of Buddha portraits
24:01 with prayer inscriptions and portraits of donors
24:04 on the lower part of each set.
24:07 Based on the illustrations of the first set of paintings
24:13 on the eastern side,
24:15 this donor, holding a lotus flower,
24:18 was a disciple called Hua-hei Nu.
24:20 Judging from his surname
24:22 and the tight-necked robe that he wore,
24:25 he was probably a hypthalite.
24:29 Among the donors in the western section of the paintings,
24:37 we see the inscription of Uposaka Yin Angui.
24:42 The Yin family were descendants of Chinese immigrants
24:45 who settled in Dunhuang during the Han dynasty.
24:48 Unlike their ancestors,
24:49 adhering to the culture of China's central plains,
24:52 Yin Angui and his family members behind him
24:56 are dressed in nomadic robes.
25:00 Based on chronological records,
25:04 the cave was constructed between 538 and 539 A.D.
25:11 The face of the people in Dunhuang
25:13 is covered in various colors.
25:15 There are people with high-nosed hats,
25:17 and people who are wearing military uniforms.
25:20 There are also descendants of Mongolians
25:24 and Tujia people in Dunhuang.
25:27 The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the home of the Qiang people.
25:31 They are also in Dunhuang.
25:32 So, Dunhuang is a place
25:34 where many ethnicities and people
25:37 of different ethnicities and cultures
25:40 gather together.
25:43 One third of the population of Dunhuang in the 10th century
25:48 were not Han Chinese.
25:50 Most of them were Sogdians.
25:53 They were the major trading group in Dunhuang
25:56 and even found their way into the political arena.
26:00 Mogao Cave 156 is a merit cave
26:04 in honor of Cheng Yichao,
26:06 the first governor of a local militia.
26:08 The picture drawn on the south wall of the cave
26:11 commemorates the service his troops provided
26:13 in defeating the Tu Bo tribe
26:15 and recovering the Hexi region in 861 A.D.
26:19 These local troops were recognized
26:22 as a formal military force by the Tang dynasty.
26:26 And this multi-ethnic regime
26:29 lasted for more than 200 years.
26:32 Cheng Yichao's mother's name was An.
26:36 Her last name was An, which means "living in the west."
26:39 Her father was a typical Sogdian.
26:43 This is a procession of both Han Chinese
26:46 and nomadic Chinese peoples.
26:47 The Guard of Honor is led by a band
26:49 playing horns and drums,
26:51 a ritual that originated in the western regions.
26:54 The band is followed by heavily armored cavalry,
26:58 the local army's elite troops.
27:01 They are followed by two groups of civil officials
27:05 and attendants as per Tang dynasty regulations.
27:09 Between them, there are Tu Bo dance groups
27:12 and musicians playing various instruments.
27:16 The man riding the white horse on the bridge
27:19 is the most important figure in this painting,
27:22 Cheng Yichao.
27:28 He is followed by his trusted guards and escorts.
27:33 Behind the main force are the nomadic archers
27:37 wearing white felt hats.
27:39 They are key supporters of Cheng Yichao's regime.
27:44 Moegau Cave 61 is a merit cave
27:48 to honor Dunhuang's Qiao family.
27:51 There are 52 portraits of female donors
27:54 on the north and south walls with 51 inscriptions.
27:59 Among these portraits,
28:00 there are the fourth governor Qiao Yijin's new Hehua wife,
28:05 his Han wife from the Song family,
28:09 and his two daughters.
28:12 One married Hehua Khan of Ganzhou
28:15 and the other married the Khotan Khan.
28:18 Some of them are dressed in Uyghur robes
28:22 with local curved lapels and peach-shaped phoenix crowns,
28:26 but the flower buds on their foreheads
28:28 and the makeup on their cheeks
28:30 are of the typical style of China's central plains.
28:35 Others wear Chinese traditional aristocratic dresses
28:39 with Uyghur phoenix crowns
28:41 and Tang-style flower hairpins.
28:45 Different ethnic groups and cultures
28:48 were linked by blood ties and affection,
28:52 and Dunhuang became a multi-ethnic melting pot
28:56 in terms of physicality and spirituality.
29:01 The Prince Satva mural adorns the middle section
29:10 of Moegau Cave's 254th south wall.
29:14 It tells the story of Sakya Muni's previous incarnation
29:17 as Prince Satva.
29:18 On a hunting trip, he spies a female tiger
29:23 and seven young cubs dying of hunger.
29:27 Out of compassion, he jumps off the cliff
29:31 to allow the tigers to feed on his flesh.
29:36 The painting adopts rough and strong colors
29:39 and leaves little space untouched.
29:42 The distorted and geometric forms
29:44 have a strong concave and convex effect
29:46 which is unseen in traditional Chinese artwork.
29:49 They push against the painting's borders
29:51 and seem about to break through the wall.
29:56 When this cave was built,
30:03 Dunhuang was experiencing a time of warfare,
30:07 locust plagues, and serious famine.
30:11 The paint strokes recorded the city's suffering
30:16 and the consolation and sympathy it deserved.
30:22 One may live a life of heroic virtue
30:26 or leisurely elegance.
30:28 A wave of fresh color unfolds as one enters Cave 285.
30:32 In the 6th century AD,
30:34 the Shenbei regime reunited northern China.
30:37 As their rulers rather admired the Han culture,
30:40 Han influences from China's central plains
30:43 was evident in the cave murals.
30:45 The picture "Conversion of 500 Bandits"
30:47 is composed in the Long Scroll style,
30:50 which was a popular medium from China's Han dynasty onward.
30:54 Amid the green mountains, lucid waters,
30:56 and gentle spring breezes,
30:58 a Buddha is preaching to a group of bandits.
31:01 There are flying flowers, propitious clouds,
31:03 and dancing animals.
31:05 By the weeping willows and bamboo forest,
31:07 these former bandits are ordained as monks
31:11 to begin new lives.
31:14 Buddha stories combine with the fantastical landscapes
31:17 favored by traditional Chinese culture.
31:20 The unrestrained character of the frontier
31:23 is infused with a more natural and elegant lifestyle.
31:27 This collision and fusion would eventually spawn
31:31 a brand new spirit of the times.
31:36 The Sui and Tang dynasties saw Dunhuang
31:39 at its peak as a trading city.
31:41 This was also the busiest time for the Mogao caves.
31:45 Sutra paintings echo this magnificent era.
31:50 To help people learn Buddhist scripture,
31:54 painters express scripture in easy-to-understand paintings,
31:59 which were called the sutra paintings.
32:05 In the Amitayor Hyana Sutra mural
32:09 on the south wall of Cave 172,
32:12 painters depicted the purest lands in Buddhist scripture,
32:16 with all of the riches of the material world.
32:21 The lotus flowers are in full bloom,
32:24 and a small bridge extends straight before the viewer's eyes.
32:28 It is as if one small step would be enough
32:31 to enter the world depicted in this mural.
32:36 Dancers gracefully perform on a carpet,
32:40 accompanied by a variety of musicians.
32:44 A desk is covered with exquisite brocade,
32:47 on which sits a wish-fulfilling jewel
32:49 that removes suffering and eliminates disaster.
32:52 Bodhisattvas have delicate plump figures,
32:55 fine eyebrows, and phoenix eyes.
33:01 Guanyin and Mahastamaprapta wear jade necklaces and waist pendants,
33:07 sitting in dignified solemnity.
33:11 On top of the Dharma throne in the middle is the Amitabha Buddha,
33:16 also known as the Buddha of Infinite Life.
33:20 Behind the Buddha is a huge hall with corridors in rows,
33:25 towering into the clouds like a mountain.
33:29 The land of bliss is depicted as a magnificent and exquisite place.
33:35 Artists in Dunhuang painted grand ideals,
33:43 as well as the secular world beyond,
33:46 but never left their names on their work.
33:49 In his autobiography, Chang Shuhong,
33:52 first director of the Dunhuang Academy, explained,
33:56 "Those artists were never obsessed by natural landscapes or personal ambition.
34:02 Instead, they worked on the reality they saw and their ideal Buddhist world,
34:07 bringing delight to their viewers.
34:10 They had a simple and vigorous painting style,
34:14 which differs greatly from the later paintings by the Chinese literati.
34:20 I believe this represents the authentic and mainstream of Chinese arts."
34:26 The Mugao Caves are home to 45,000 square meters of murals
34:30 and more than 2,400 painted carvings,
34:33 bearing witness to the aesthetic achievements of Dunhuang people in different eras
34:38 and the faith and vicissitudes of Dunhuang City for over a thousand years.
34:45 The Mugao Caves
34:49 Facing the realities of time and harsh environments,
34:54 the imprint of civilization is extremely fragile.
34:57 Dunhuang is an oasis city, surrounded by the Gobi Desert.
35:02 The northwestern Kumtog Desert is expanding towards it
35:06 at a speed of four meters per year.
35:09 In the drier surface caused by warming temperatures every spring,
35:13 strong winds whip up clouds of sand and dust.
35:18 This echoes the name Shazhou it once had, meaning "sandy land."
35:23 With the rise of northern grassland roads and maritime trade routes in the 13th century,
35:32 Dunhuang lost its unique advantage and returned to a nomadic land.
35:39 As prosperity faded, the digging of the Mugao Caves came to a halt,
35:43 while Dunhuang residents migrated elsewhere.
35:47 In 1524, the Ming Dynasty closed the Jiayu Pass and officially abandoned Dunhuang.
35:55 Two hundred years later, the Qing government re-established authority here
36:01 and relocated 2,400 households from 56 counties in the northwest region to Dunhuang.
36:08 In 1943, the Mugao Caves were desolate and quiet,
36:12 accompanied only by the Denshan River, intense sunlight and unceasing sandstorms.
36:19 The desert has three types of damage.
36:21 The wind, the sand and the dust.
36:25 The sand is covered with a layer of sand.
36:27 The sand covers the cliff and forms a steep cliff.
36:31 The dust may have penetrated the cave's wall.
36:34 The dust is alkaline.
36:36 When it is exposed to the tide, it expands and causes the wall to be flattened.
36:40 It's like a flower that's about to bloom.
36:44 It's a broken flower.
36:46 It's like a broken chain.
36:50 But it's already broken.
36:53 The color of the soil is very slow.
37:00 We usually close the cave.
37:02 As long as it's not exposed to the light, the color will fade.
37:06 The key is the soil.
37:09 Look at the dry soil.
37:11 There's something behind it.
37:13 We did an experiment.
37:16 There's no mural below.
37:19 It's a stone cliff.
37:21 If you go in and go out, you'll find a hole.
37:25 You can't get rid of this.
37:29 The headache is here.
37:31 In the past, no one cared.
37:33 The sand was rolled in.
37:35 Don't look at the sand. It's hard to touch.
37:38 It's basically a cliff.
37:41 I didn't do a good job.
37:43 You can do a good job.
37:45 He can do a good job.
37:47 But there's no one to do it.
37:49 You can do a good job.
37:51 He can't do it.
37:53 The National Dunhuang Art Research Institute,
37:57 predecessor of the Dunhuang Academy,
37:59 was founded in 1944.
38:01 Its top priority was to clear the sand
38:03 that had nearly buried the Mugao Caves.
38:07 Up until the 1980s, 3,000 to 4,000 cubic meters of sand
38:11 were cleared from the caves each year.
38:15 To block sand coming from the west and south,
38:18 a 6,000-meter-long anti-sand barrier was built
38:22 and over 1 million square meters
38:24 of straw checkerboard barriers were constructed.
38:27 In front of the barriers were two forests
38:29 consisting of trees and shrubs,
38:31 each about 1,800 meters long and over 10 meters wide.
38:36 They reduced wind speeds and intercepted flowing sand.
38:40 Larger gravel was laid over 1 million square meters
38:44 of empty desert to keep the sand down.
38:48 An A-shaped nylon prevention net
38:51 could block sand blowing in the main wind direction
38:54 and guide sand in the secondary wind direction
38:57 to control the total amount of sand being carried.
39:02 The Academy also organized the reinforcement
39:05 of the cliff face to form a robust protective shell
39:09 against wind erosion.
39:12 Six anti-sand barriers were successively erected
39:17 from west to east between the 1980s and 2011,
39:22 which covered the areas from the forefront of the sand dunes
39:26 to the Mugao Caves cliff.
39:28 Today, these anti-sand defenses,
39:30 built to preserve the heritage of human civilization,
39:34 have become a spectacle itself.
39:38 On September 10, 2014, a reservation system
39:41 was officially introduced at the Mugao Caves,
39:44 setting a limit of 6,000 visits per day.
39:47 An emergency plan for the peak season
39:50 specified a limit of 12,000 visits per day.
39:53 Even so, entry tickets still quickly sell out.
39:57 The peak season is 27,000 visits per day.
40:00 It's a long queue.
40:03 This is the super-high-altitude lamp, right?
40:08 Yes, it's a super-high-altitude lamp.
40:10 The temperature of the sand dunes is low.
40:12 When tourists enter,
40:14 the temperature of the sand dunes immediately rises.
40:16 The sand dunes are 1,500 meters above sea level.
40:18 Now it's 1,600 meters above sea level.
40:20 It's a flashing yellow light.
40:21 If it's over 2,000 meters, it will flash a red light.
40:23 Especially after 10 o'clock,
40:25 the temperature of the sand dunes
40:27 and the relative humidity of the sand dunes
40:29 will rise.
40:31 The Dunhuang Academy carefully monitors
40:34 the impact of tourists.
40:36 For example, Cave 323 is 26 square meters
40:40 and 143.1 cubic meters.
40:43 When 40 tourists enter the cave with the door open
40:46 and leave after 37 minutes and then the door is closed,
40:51 the temperature of the sand dunes rises.
40:55 Carbon dioxide is 7.5 times higher.
40:58 Relative humidity goes up 10%,
41:01 and the temperature goes up 4 degrees centigrade.
41:05 The half-life of air temperature,
41:08 relative humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration
41:11 is 0.25 hours, 1 hour, and 3 hours, respectively.
41:15 In peak season, the caves are in a state of prolonged fatigue
41:19 and the temperature is rising.
41:21 It's not that we're too worried or too conservative.
41:24 It's not like that.
41:25 Because it's really too fragile.
41:27 Our current ability is not up to the impact
41:30 of the development of the desert.
41:33 We may be half-life.
41:35 You can't see its impact.
41:37 When you see its impact,
41:39 it's over.
41:40 It's too late.
41:42 Dunhuang Academy was established in 1977.
41:44 So you can say that the history of 77 years
41:46 is also a protective history.
41:48 The area of the murals that Mogao Cave has preserved
41:51 is 45,000 square meters.
41:53 So far, the restoration of the murals
41:56 has been about 5,000 to 6,000 square meters.
41:59 The restoration work is very delicate and slow.
42:03 It may take a few days for our restoration staff
42:06 to complete, or even longer,
42:09 a mural restoration of about one square meter.
42:12 I do think we shouldn't...
42:16 I think we should be sad about losing any kind of material.
42:19 I mean, since with computers, you can say that will disappear.
42:22 But of course, it'll be replaced by a new one.
42:25 But something, you know, like a...
42:27 like a Buddhist painting from the Tang Dynasty,
42:31 that's never going to need to be replaced.
42:34 It should stand forever as a monument to that time.
42:38 We hope that we leave behind some achievement,
42:43 some testimony to the fact that we were once alive.
42:48 That's only human, I think.
42:51 In 2008, the Dunhuang Academy launched a program
42:55 to bring Dunhuang's cave art to schools.
42:58 Volunteers from the Dunhuang Academy
43:00 are now working on a project
43:02 to bring Dunhuang's cave art to schools.
43:05 Volunteers visited elementary and middle schools in Dunhuang
43:09 and the surrounding rural and ethnic areas.
43:12 They teach the children about the cave art at Dunhuang
43:17 and the area they call home.
43:19 Let us hope that Dunhuang will stay.
43:26 The cultural identity of the cave art
43:30 is not only Chinese, but also international.
43:33 Time can destroy everything.
43:35 In fact, what is truly eternal is a spirit.
43:40 The Dunhuang Academy of Art
43:43 is a project of the Dunhuang Academy of Arts
43:46 and the Dunhuang Academy of Arts,
43:48 a joint venture between Dunhuang Academy of Arts
43:51 and the Dunhuang Academy of Arts.
43:53 The Dunhuang Academy of Arts is a project of the Dunhuang Academy of Arts.
43:57 The Dunhuang Academy of Arts is a project of the Dunhuang Academy of Arts.
44:01 The Dunhuang Academy of Arts is a project of the Dunhuang Academy of Arts.