1. Cave No. 96, dating back to the Early Tang Dynasty (618-705), is the site of the largest Buddha in the Mogao Caves, standing at 35.5 meters tall with a width of 12 meters between the knees. According to the Dunhuang manuscript ‘Mogao Caves Record’, this Buddha was built in the first year of the Zhengsheng era of the Tang Dynasty (695 AD) by Zen master Lingyin and layman Yinzu. It represents the ‘Future Buddha’ Maitreya, the successor to Sakyamuni.
The statue was crafted using stone as a base with clay and straw for sculpting, finished with fine mud detailing and color application. Although it has been renovated multiple times and no longer retains its original Tang Dynasty appearance, the grandeur remains. The cave’s front structure, known as the Nine-Story Building, was originally four stories high, expanded to five during the late Tang Dynasty (874-879), and restored in the early Song Dynasty (966 AD).
The Nine-Story Building, constructed in 1935, stands tall with its, eaves, and the sound of iron horses, becoming one of the symbols of the Mogao Caves.
2. Cave No. 16-17, with Cave 16 built between the years of Dazhong and Xiantong during the Tang Dynasty (851-867), features a three-story wooden structure built against the cliff, hence the common name ‘Three-Story Building’. It was constructed under the supervision of Daoist priest Wang in the 32nd year of the Guangxu era (1906 AD). Wang discovered a hidden scripture cave, later designated as Cave 17, on the north side of the corridor in Cave 16.
Therefore, the Three-Story Building is also a rare cave within a cave. Cave 17 (late Tang Dynasty, 848-906), also known as the Hidden Scripture Cave, is located on the north wall of the corridor in Cave 16 and was originally a niche for the late Tang monk Hongbian. At the beginning of the eleventh century, due to war and other reasons, over 50,000 Buddhist scriptures, paintings, ritual objects, and other religious and social documents were secretly stored here, walled up and sealed, with a mural on the surface.
Over time, the sealed door was forgotten… In 1900 (the 26th year of the Guangxu era, May 26th), this secret chamber was accidentally discovered by Daoist priest Wang Yuanluo while cleaning the accumulated sand. Unfortunately, from 1905 to 1915, foreigners such as the Englishman Stein, the Frenchman Pelliot, the Japanese Kōtō and Yukawa, and the Russian Oudenbourg, tricked Wang into selling nearly 40,000 ancient documents at low prices.
3. The Hidden Scripture Cave was discovered in 1900 when Daoist priest Wang Yuanluo, a resident of the Mogao Caves, was conducting a large-scale cleanup to convert some of the long-abandoned caves into a Taoist temple. While clearing the silt from Cave 16 (current numbering), he accidentally found a small door on the north corridor wall, leading to a chamber measuring 2 meters in length and width.
A square chamber measuring 6 meters in length and 3 meters in height, currently designated as Cave 17, houses over 50,000 historical documents and artifacts dating from the 4th to the 11th century (from the Sixteen Kingdoms period to the Northern Song Dynasty), including manuscripts, paper paintings, silk paintings, and embroideries. This is the renowned ‘Scripture Cave’. The interior walls of the cave are adorned with paintings of the Bodhi tree and Bhikkhuni, with a meditation-style low platform in the center featuring a seated statue of the eminent monk Hongbian, and an unfinished stone stele.
The latest documents unearthed from the cave are from the Northern Song period, with no Western Xia script, leading to the inference that the Scripture Cave was sealed by the monks of the Mogao Caves in the 11th century to evade the Western Xia army during their escape. The discovery of the Mogao Caves’ Scripture Cave is an extremely significant event in Chinese archaeological history. The unearthed documents are mostly manuscripts, with a small number of printed texts.
Approximately five-sixths are written in Chinese, while the rest are in ancient Tibetan, Sanskrit, Qirghiz, Sogdian, Khotanese, Uighur, Kuchean, and Hebrew scripts. The content mainly consists of Buddhist scriptures, but also includes Daoist texts, Confucian classics, novels, poetry, historical records, land registers, account books, calendars, deeds, letters, and official documents, many of which are unique and rare editions.
These artifacts are of great historical and scientific value for the study of Chinese and Central Asian history, leading to the development of a discipline primarily focused on the study of the Scripture Cave documents and the art of the Dunhuang Caves – Dunhuang Studies.
The Scripture Cave Exhibition Hall, converted from the original lower temple of the Mogao Caves, displays artifacts related to the Scripture Cave, including replicas of the Dunhuang manuscripts and paintings that have been lost abroad, a historical review of the discovery and plundering of the cave, as well as an introduction to the current state of Dunhuang Studies.
