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Lost civilization – Dunhuang

From Jiangnan to Lanzhou, we took train for two days. And then changed cars, five days later in the evening we arrived Dunhuang. Dunhuang, in my impression, it is merely a small border town to the northwest. But in Dunhuang, I knew that I was shallow. Beacause Dunhuang is a bustling city, with all establishments eastern cities have, including health and unhealthy.
When the car crossed the long of windbreaks, and went into the cantonal, all unexpected things were no longer concerned to us, it was important that we tried our best to reached Dunhuang finally. We cheered spontaneously: Dunhuang, we are coming!

The next morning, we drove to Mo Gao Ku. In the vehicle, the leader of our team repeatedly warned us: in Mo Gao Ku, don’t take separate action, don’t leave the tour, and don’t take photos. He called them "three no" policy, we must adhere to the rules. About forty minutes trip, we got to Mo Gao Ku.
Mo Gao Ku located in a obscure khaki-coloured mountains waist. The cave were covered by sparsely wood, a long river was dry, absolutely desolate and lorn, but extremely mysterious.
Although there are marvellous spectacles such as Weeping Dune and Ku Crescent Moon Spring, undoubtedly Mo Gao Ku by Treasure for the Treasure. It brought together many of the cultural history; Collection of the painting scroll of history too; Also embodies the essence of art too much human thought. When you are in Mo Gao Ku, as if you are walking into human civilization time and unable to pull yourself up in the human small and the great.

Mo Gao Ku built in Jianyuan 2nd during the Former Qin dynasty (AD. 336), which is claimed to have 1,000 caves, in fact probably more than 500 caves. In front of the gate, we handed in our cameras (camera was not allowed in Mo Gao Ku), and followed two guides into a dark cave and entered the long process of history.
Mo Gao Ku more than 500 caves, from the former Qin Shi Huang, experienced the dynasties of Sui, Tang, Yuan, Ming and Qing, Every generation repaired holes in the cave, every cave that dynasty basically have condensed the essence of the art. We didn’t see all five hundred caves, but caves of every dynasty we visited, it seemed to be going a long history of civilization. The kind of arts and cultural differences between the characteristics and brought us toward the concert.
To protect the cave paintings and statues, Mo Gao Ku all cave lights are not installed, every cave have advanced electronic monitoring equipment to ensure the protection of heritage. Moreover, each cave is locked, guides carry a huge key to open the cave. When the visitors finished their visiting, the door was locked immediately, even a following group will immediately come to visit also are not mistakenly locked.
On the tour personnel, there was one object, flashlight, which is used for visiting. In the dark cave, people followed the guide with one foot shallow one foot deep. Suddenly the guide opened flashlight, and illuminated a beautiful murals, they already began on the images. They certainly were nonchalant to the murals and tourist’s shocking, as there was no exciting in their speech. But the visitors were experiencing some excitement and the attack of the heart. The small flashlight illuminated the great predecessors, but also the image of small ourselves.
We visited one cave by one, all caves had no name except the number: "330 houses, 350 houses, 220 houses" liked a milestone on their long, recording the process of people toward civilization, and creating civilized history. It recorded every dynasty also. Murals of Tang dynasty were undoubtedly the most outstanding in all cave, the content of the richest Tang dynasty was highest skilled. By the Qing dynasty, it was apparent some decline, no spirit, no vivid, as guides said the expression of all figures were like the same as the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Finally, we entered the 17 hole, which is the city. The most important thing in human archaeology in the twentieth century was the discovery of the city of Dunhuang. In 1900, it as if the history offer the twentieth century a gift in that year, the closed door opened to the world.
It is because of Mo Gao Ku Dunhuang, is there a city Dunhuang, while also, because of the city, is there Mao Gao Ku. Wangdaoshi who is difficult to evaluate opened the door of Dunhuang, Mo Gao Ku more than 10,000 pieces of incalculable treasures were grabbed by foreigners at here.
The door which Wangdaoshi found out was still opened, and nothing was in it. We could hardly imagine that, in this poor cave, had existed such rich cultural deposits; and it was also difficult to judge whether it was a national glory or shame.

At noon, experienced a hearts baptism, all visitors return to the vehicles exhaustedly. In the sunshine, the desert became more inhospitable. One thousand and six hundred ago, Ledun monk saw Fo Kuang on three crisis Hill, then excavated the first cave of Mo Gao Ku. Thousands of years later, a number of stonemen came here from a long and hard journey to create Mo Gao Ku brilliance. I am wondering, in the process, what supported their lives for the faith? So many fine art objects from different nation, different religious beliefs, different artistic approach, and what caused them get together in Dunhuang? Maybe this world is really difficult to explain things too much, we can not find out the answer. We are just the visitors, and we came and went, leaving our astonishment, take some small souvenirs, and then rush toward the next destination, but Mo Gao Ku will always belong to Dunhuang.

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Posted by moxiaobing 00:46

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