Abstract
The history and significance of Mogao are developed in this chapter. For more than a 1,000 years Dunhuang had thrived as an outpost guarding the westernmost regions of the empire, protecting trade and encouraging the exchange of goods and knowledge between the heartland and regions to the west. Buddhism flowed along the Silk Road oases into China proper and beyond. During this period artisans constructed the caves along the mile of cliff face. The decorated caves of Mogao are among the world’s most important sites of Buddhist art and afford an unparalleled record of a millennium of Chinese wall painting and sculpture, depicting not only the religious practices of the period between the fourth and fourteenth centuries, but also life, customs, costumes, music, agriculture, and a wealth of historical information of the times. Management of the grottoes dates back to the 1940s when a group of young archaeologists and artists began the work of preserving, studying, and documenting the site. In 1999 the Dunhuang Academy began their master planning process following the methodology of the China Principles. Out of this process visitor management and, specifically, the urgent need to determine the relationship between visitation to the caves and deterioration of the wall paintings emerged as a priority.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage was centrally involved in the development of the visitor management plan and the initial visitor surveys (Altenburg et al. 2010; Li et al. 2010). See also Agnew et al. 2006 for application of the China Principles planning process to visitor management at the Mogao Grottoes and the Imperial Mountain Resort at Chengde.
References
Agnew, Neville, Demas Martha, Sullivan Sharon, and Altenburg Kirsty. 2004. The begetting of charters: genesis of the China principles. Historic Environment (Australia ICOMOS) 18(1): 40–45.
Agnew, Neville, Kirsty Altenburg, Martha Demas, and Sharon Sullivan. 2006. Tourism: a good servant, but a bad master. Strategies for visitor management at Chengde and Mogao, China. Historic Environment (Australia ICOMOS) 19(2):13–19.
Altenburg, Kirsty, Sullivan, Sharon, Li, Ping, and Barker, Peter. 2010. The challenge of managing visitors at the Mogao Grottoes. In Conservation of ancient sites on the Silk Road (Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Grotto Sites, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, People’s Republic of China, June 28–July 3, 2004), ed. Agnew, Neville. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute. 152–159.
China Architectural Design Academy, Getty Conservation Institute, Australian Heritage Commission, and Dunhuang Academy. 2010. Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes Conservation Master Plan.
Fan Jinshi. 1997. Fifty years of protection of the Dunhuang Grottoes. In Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road: Proceedings of an International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites, ed. Neville Agnew, 12–22. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute.
Fan Jinshi. 2010. Master plan for the conservation and management of the Mogao Grottoes: preparation and achievements. In Conservation of ancient sites on the Silk Road (Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Grotto Sites, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, People’s Republic of China, June 28–July 3, 2004), ed. Agnew, Neville. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute. 3–7.
Fan Jinshi and Shengliang Zhao. 2009. The Art of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang: A Journey into China’s Buddhist Shrine (English), 1st ed. Paramus, NJ: Homa & Sekey Books.
Li Ping, Sharon Sullivan, Kirsty Altenburg, and Peter Barker. 2010. Visitor surveys at Mogao: Pioneering the process, 2002-2004. In Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road (Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Grotto Sites, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, People’s Republic of China, June 28-July 3, 2004), ed. Neville Agnew, 143–151. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute.
Wang, Xudong. 2013. Dunhuang Buddhist art and its preventive conservation. In Art of Merit. Studies in Buddhist art and its conservation, eds David Park, Kuenga Wangmo and Sharon Cather. London: Archetype Publications in association with The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Art and Conservation at the Courtauld. 153–169.
Whitfield, Roderick, Susan Whitfield, and Neville Agnew. 2000. Cave temples of Mogao. Art and history on the Silk Road. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Museum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 The J. Paul Getty Trust
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Demas, M., Agnew, N., Jinshi, F. (2015). The Mogao Grottoes. In: Strategies for Sustainable Tourism at the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, China. SpringerBriefs in Archaeology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09000-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09000-9_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08999-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09000-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)