The Carving of Mogao Grottos in Nationalities’ Period

A. Dunhuang in Uighur, Western Xia and Yuan Dynasty

The nationality “Uighur” lived in Dunhuang in Tubo Period since the middle stage of A.D.9th century. It was destroyed by Western Xia at the earlier stage of A.D.10th century and it was called “Sha Chow Uighur” in history. In recent years, because of finding out the documents in Uighur characters, Chinese and foreign scholars began to research it and get some achievements. The research on the history of Western Xia ruling Dunhuang was roughly the same. There were no more records on Dunhuang in Mongolia Period or Yuan Dynasty and the research on those was rarity of rarities.

The powerful Uighur controlled the Dunhuang area when Cao’s Administration was going downhill and established the “Sha Chow Uighur Government”. In fact, this was a Shan Chow Uighur-Chinese Coalition Government, which was ruled by Western Xia Dynasty. It was merged into Western Xia Dynasty in A.D.1036. Sha and Gua Chows had still maintained paying tribute to North Song Dynasty until A.D.1052. At that time, there was a Uighur Sha Chow Prince who submitted to North Song Dynasty and he refused to obey the ruling of Western Xia Dynasty. He wrote to Northwest army leader of North Song Dynasty and planed to rebel. Thus it can see, the authority of Sha and Gua Chows were actually controlled by Uighur and Chinese at that time. There was the situation at the earlier stage of the period that Western Xia ruled Dunhuang and it couldn’t last too long, because Western Xia Dynasty had only ruled Dunhuang and Hexi area for 200 years.

In A.D.1226, the Mongol army attacked and occupied Dunhuang. The Dunhuang in Yuan Dynasty had begun. Yuan Dynasty paid more attention to guard and construct Dunhuang. They established Sha Chow Lu and located army. They developed the agriculture and craft in Sha Chow and carried forward religious cultures, so an Italian Marco Polo saw a stable and flourishing Sha Chow when he passed there. Afterwards, Yuan Dynasty moved tens of thousands of people toward east to work on agriculture in Gan and Su Chows. From then on, Dunhuang had become an army location until Ming Dynasty.

B. The Carving of Mogao Grottos in Uighur and Western Xia Dynasty

Because of worshiping the Buddhism, the Uighur nationality worked on carving grottos in Mogao Grottos. In recent years, the scholars’ research showed that the Uighur grottos of Mogao Grottos were actually repaired, (see: the Annals of Carving Mogao Grottos). It was difficult to distinguish them from grottos carved at the late stage of Cao’s Administration and grottos carved at the earlier stage of Western Xia Dynasty. In those periods, the main carving operation was to repair paintings with Buddha and Bodhisattvas. So no inscription materials were left in these grottos.

There were some inscriptions of Western Xia Dynasty in Mogao Grottos, such as Western Xia character inscription about Fu Quan who lived in Liang Chow clear away sands in grottos in A.D.1085. The inscriptions had no relationship with the style and character of carving grottos. The Western Xia character inscriptions, which were north wall of west room in No.285 Grotto and south wall of corridor in No.340 Grotto, were painted in Yuan Dynasty.

Written by www.travel-silkroad.com
Translated by www.xinghui.com
February 12th, 2001