The Silk Road: An Information Highway Used to Spread the Art, Culture and Religion of China Free Essay Example

About 1900 kilometres west of Beijing lies the City of Dunhuang, a town that mainly developed due to its strategic location along the Silk Road. Sitting at the edge of Takla Makan and Gobi deserts, the town acted as a critical gateway for traders and travellers setting out of Silk Road either from the road's southern or northern arms ( Agnew & Jinshi, 1997) . Because of the strategic location, the town acted as the last oasis before travellers along the road could embark on the journey of skirting Takla Makan desert when heading to Kashi, whether the Chinese travellers set out through the southern or northern routes, they would eventually avoid the desert and reach Kashi. Silk Road linked China to Rome and any other country the road passed, including India and Tibet ( Agnew & Jinshi, 1997) . Silk Road was not entirely for trading; the road also acted as an information highway and led to the spread of art, cultures and religion. Through this information highway that Indians managed to spread their religion Buddhism (which originated in India in the 6 th century) to China ( Agnew & Jinshi, 1997). The spread of Buddhism through the route is visible near the Dunhuang town (28 kilometres due south of Dunhuang) in the Magao Caves filled with Buddhist clay statues and wall paintings.

Figure 1.

Map of Silk Road showing the location of Dunhuang

Note : From China's Buddhist treasures at Dunhuang , by Agnew, N., & Jinshi, F, 1997.

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The rock temples, Magao Caves in Dunhuang, came because of Buddhist pilgrims travelling along the Silk Road. The town being a primary gateway meant that most worshipers passed by, and the soft sandstone and conglomerate rocks present in the 1600 meter cliff facilitated the pilgrims to dig up the caves to act as shrines where they would offer prayers for safe passage during their journeys ( Agnew & Jinshi, 1997) . These monks continued caving the cliff for more than ten centuries to set up more shrines, lodgings, and libraries. Because this trade took place over a long period and involved Buddhists from different social classes, the caves Magao caves have diverse trade records, Buddhism customs, manufacturing practices and Buddhism sacred prayers ( Agnew & Jinshi, 1997) . The caves also have records of how Chinese Buddhism emerged from the original Indian Buddhism, and Magao Grottoes represents the collections of this transformation. Several decades later, when Tibetans conquered China and converted large parts to Islam, Dunhuang proved to be so remote; hence, the revolution power did not affect Magao Caves; therefore, the caves preserved all the Magao Grottoes until 1907 when archaeologists Sven Hedin and Paul Pelliot discovered this cultural heritage leading to the discovery of 750 caves.

Mogao Caves

The idea behind Magao Caves came from visions monk, Yuezen had when he arrived at Singing Sand Mountain. In the "vision of light", the monk saw "golden Buddha blazing in the cliff" ( Hays, 2021). After the vision, the monk carved the first cave smaller than a coffin; however, it would inspire other monastic communities to cave more enormous caves to show their devotion to religion. In the caves, these devotees began adorning the caves they dug with images of Buddha. Between the 4 th and 11 th century Silk Road brought Buddhism to China, and during the period, reach patrons supported Buddhist monks in excavating Magao Caves throughout ten dynasties ( Hays, 2021) . During this period, Magao Caves were constructed without pause; when a new ruler took over, they opted to finance the excavation of new caves rather than destroying the previous caves until they ran out of room in the cliff and no more caves could be built. In various shapes and sizes, the 735 caves in Mogao represent Buddhist rock art sanctuary; out of this number, 492 are cave temples and are currently preserved ( Hays, 2021) . One of the most essential preserved caves is Magao Cave 302, which genuinely stores information about Buddha and a source of material cultural information.

Mogao Grottoes Cave 302

Believed to have been constructed between 581-618 during the Sui dynasty, Cave 302 holds the oldest information about Buddha and Buddhism and cultural exchanges information that took place along the Silk Road. The cave's remains is an outer chamber with a short passageway around a central pillar( Bell, 2000) . The passageway is attached to a central pillar, and the cave has "small niches on the external walls about eye-level" ( Bell, 2000). The ceiling around the central pillar in the cave has two patterns; the eastern part is gabled, while in the centre, the ceiling has series of lantern elements ( Bell, 2000) . The gabled eastern antechamber only occupies a small portion of the ceiling.

Figure 2

Cave 302