THE best place for people to learn about medieval Chinese art is the site of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu Province.

This was the impression I got after visiting the grottoes Sept. 17 and 18, along with a 10-member research team from Shenzhen’s Guan Shanyue Art Museum.

On behalf of the Shenzhen Daily, I was invited to join the research team and was offered a chance to study the ancient cave art.

During our two-day stay at the Mogao Grottoes, we visited a total of 21 caves, including the 57th, 220th, 158th, 285th and 45th caves, which have been listed as “special caves” because they are not only well preserved, but also best represent the achievements in Dunhuang cave art.

Tourists can visit the special caves by paying 200 to 600 yuan (US$26-79) for each, on top of the 160 yuan admission fee.

A shrine of Buddhist art treasures, the Mogao Grottoes are situated 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang on the eastern slope of Mount Mingshashan.

A 1,600-meter-long network of plank-reinforced roads that stretches from north to south lead to the cave openings, which are stacked five stories high with some reaching up to 50 meters.

Dunhuang, which means “prospering or flourishing,” once served as the westernmost fort of the Early Tang Dynasty (618-704) on the Silk Road. Mogao means “high up in the desert.”

According to Chinese historical records, a Buddhist monk in the fourth century had a vision of 1,000 Buddhas in the Gobi desert, and began to carve grottoes into the sandstone cliff.

Dunhuang cave art reached its zenith during the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties. It adopted Chinese delineation and Western patch coloring, creating depictions of human expressions that were remarkably life-like and elegant.

The extant 492 grottoes contain 45,000 square meters of murals, more than 2,400 painted sculptures, more than 4,000 flying asperses, five wooden structures of the Tang and Song dynasties, and thousands of lotus-shaped pillars and floral paving tiles.

These existing grottoes span a period of 1,000 years, from the fourth to the 14th century, and visually represent through vivid detail the culture of medieval China.

The first cave in the Mogao Grottoes we visited was the 17th cave, which is also known as the Library Cave.

The rediscovery of the Library Cave, which was sealed around the mid-11th century and remained untouched for 900 years, makes for a sad story.

In 1900, Wang Yuanlu, a Taoist monk, who lived in a temple nearby, accidentally discovered the secret Library Cave while cleaning the 16th cave.

But, unfortunately, the discovery happened at a time when the late Qing-Dynasty government was corrupt and incompetent and the Western powers were invading China.

Soon after Wang’s discovery, looters from Britain, France, Japan, Russia, the Untied Sates and other countries rushed to Dunhuang one after another and plundered a large amount of Dunhuang sutras, taking most of the ancient manuscripts with them to various parts of the world.

Today, the temple, which is close to the 16th and 17th caves, has been turned into a special museum for the library cave.

Constructed between 538 and 539 A.D., the 285th cave is the cave with the earliest written record of construction in the Mogao Grottoes.

The cave is special because of what it holds. We saw various traditional Chinese and Indian deities. They show the combination of Chinese and Indian cultures and religions in the Mogao Grottoes.

The 57th cave, also called the Beauty Cave, is among the best-preserved caves representative of the artistic style of the early Tang Dynasty.

There are about 16 figures in the mural “Buddha Preaching the Law” on the south wall on the cave. Among them, Avalokitesvara on the left is the most beautifully painted.

With her left hand touching ribbons on her shoulder and her right hand resting on her chest, the whole body of Avalokitesvara takes on a charming S-shape. This mural shows artists in the early Tang Dynasty began to paint Buddhist figures based on models in real life.

In the Mogao Grottoes, there are more than 200 caves which have music as their theme and have over 500 images of various sizes. The 220th cave is well known for its grand band of musicians in the north wall mural.

The mural depicts four dancers practicing the fast moving twirling dance of the West Asian style in time to music played by 32 musicians in two groups.

We were able to recognize some of musical instruments, such as zeng, xiao, qiangdi, and waist drum.

The 158th cave, also called Nirvana Cave, has the original 15.8-meter-long clay sculpture of the sleeping Buddha from the mid-Tang Dynasty (781-847).

As the best-preserved cave from the high Tang Dynasty (705-780), the 45th cave presents a group of seven life-like painted clay statues in the central niche in the west wall.

The group sculpture has the sitting Buddha in the center of the niche and Anandas, Bodhisattvas and Heavenly Kings standing on the south and north sides.

As a landmark of the Mogao Grottoes, the Nine-Storied Mansion stands at the center of the Mogao caves.

First constructed in 695 A.D., the mansion was rebuilt many times over more than 1,000 years.

Forming the front of the 96th cave, the mansion houses a 35.5-meter-tall sitting Buddha. The sitting Buddha is the largest Buddhist statue in the Mogao Grottoes as well as the third largest around the world.