Dunhuang with the priceless treasures neglected.

The ancient Silk Road has always been an enchanted way of traveling to the feet of Mr. Tran Huyen Trang. This is a trade area between ancient China and Western countries, containing many treasures of ancient Buddhist history, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Silk Road

Referring to Dunhuang, people think of the Silk Road and is home to the world's most ancient cave paintings of Buddhist cultural history. The cave in Don Hoang is honored as the first cave by owning a population of up to 492 caves and over 2,400 Buddha statues and countless ancient frescoes, stretching over an area of ​​45,000 m2.

Back in history, more than 1,000 years ago, with the Mac Cao cave chain, there are paintings of Buddha images on the Gobi desert walls near Dunhuang town in western China. In it, there is a hidden 150m-high cellar containing hidden heritage hundreds of years ago. This room was called the Dunhuang library, newly discovered in 1900. Archaeological researchers were impressed with the relics stored here as 40,000 writings, including letters, scrolls, oil paintings, silk paintings, paper paintings ...

In the Middle Ages, Dunhuang was once considered a vigorous flourishing cultural center, considered a center of Buddhist culture with a flourishing Buddhist art background.

It can be said that in the Middle Ages, Dunhuang was once considered a cultural center flourishing vigorously, considered a center of Buddhist culture with a flourishing Buddhist art background. This place is considered sacred place for pilgrims to visit the temples in the cave.

From the 9th-10th century - this place was famous for its frescoes painted on craggy cliffs of caves by Tang Buddhist monks and Song dynasty. They invited artisans to carve out caves with frescoes, ancient texts on philosophy, religion, history, and mathematics, folk poetry, songs, dances and Buddhist calculus.

Precious mecca

According to legend, the construction of the first cave is related to the legend: In 366, there was a Venerable Lac Ton venerable who traveled to Tam Nguyet mountain in the south to Dunhuang. When the sun was about to set, the monk still could not find a place to rest. He immediately looked away, caught a strange sight: On the Tam Nguyet mountain, a dignified light like the aura of Buddhas was emitted. 

Body and mind trembled, the extremely moved monk rushed to do the ceremony, claiming that this was a blessing of the Buddha. "This is the holy place". After that, the teacher turned all over the place, donating money and effort to open the caves.

By the Ming Qing period, this area was sunk in the Gobi desert, seemingly forgotten

By the Ming Qing period, the area sank in the Gorbi desert, seemingly forgotten. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Dunhuang was newly restored. In 1900, a Taoist named Wang Yuanyi resided in the area, while working there discovered a northern wall with cracks. This accidental discovery has become a major event in the history of human culture in the 20th century.

The sorcerer king knocked on the wall, saw the sound empty, echoing, when he broke the wall, he saw a small door, inside was a room filled with precious objects such as handwritten scriptures, letters, silk paintings, paintings, legal instruments ...

Forgotten treasure

This place is later called Museum of Economic Crisis. According to some sources, the cave contains Buddhist scriptures with 50,000 copies of manuscripts, historical documents, silk paintings, wood carvings and calligraphic works, praised as "Library on the cliff". This huge volume requires a 25km gallery to be fully exhibited.

According to archaeologists' research, during the period of the Tây Hạ dynasty ruling Dunhuang (after 1049), the Venerable in the Mac Cao area for refuge, should bring the history of the organ placed in this room, outside to establish a picture. wall covering. After the war ended, the Venerable Monks did not return, the room became unrecognizable.

Although he did not understand the ancient texts, the Taoist King knew this was a great thing and had great significance. He immediately contacted the local mandarin, but now they were busy with the Nghia Hoa Union movement emerging leading to tight finance, so his offer did not receive any support.

However, this news soon spread widely and many foreign archaeological teams came here, including explorer Aurel Stein, who was conducting his second archaeological survey in Central Asia. Stein had to wait for 2 months to meet the Taoist King at the place where the texts were located.

Cao Cao's rock cave has always been looked after by Buddhist monks until it was forgotten and reappeared in 1900. Based on the written texts and languages, they may have originated from that. first century

Master Wang was quite careful when he was always staring at the documents and he was also quite annoyed when mentioning the problem of reselling the documents. Stein still persevered in persuading the Taoist. He finally bought some letters and paintings for £ 130.

Thus, each foreign expedition team, such as England, Russia, Hungary, France ... to Mac Cao area to find treasures, a large number of treasures they took away, seriously damaged some of the mural, until The treasure of Mac Cao area is not much, the Chinese people are just starting to care.

Based on the inscriptions, one can predict that the person who looked after this library was formerly a monk Hongbian, who led the Buddhist community in Dunhuang. In 862, after he passed away, his statue was built inside a temple. While some manuscripts have been lost, many other texts are still stored in caves.

The population of nearly 500 Mac Cao artificial caves is 25 km southeast of Dunhuang town Gansu province.

This is an oasis located on the Silk Road and used to be an important cultural and religious center in the past. 

The Mac Cao stone cave was honored as the first cave by owning a population of up to 492 caves and more than 2,400 Buddha statues, with countless frescoes, stretching over an area of ​​45,000 m2.

Cao Cao's rock cave has always been looked after by Buddhist monks until it was forgotten and reappeared in 1900. Based on the written texts and languages, they may have originated from that. first century

Each foreign expedition team, such as Britain, Russia, Hungary, France ... to Mac Cao area to find treasures, a large number of treasures they took away, seriously damaged some of the frescoes, until treasuring the area. Mac Cao didn't have much left, the Chinese people began to care.

These precious objects not only bring spiritual meaning, but also a historical picture, a brilliant and glorious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation for a while.

Today, the works at Dunhuang library have been paid attention by world scholars, conducting extensive research, forming a research specialty, called Dunhuang, which has repeatedly organized the Don conference. The royal school has a world scale. Now, the art and the ancient wrestling of Dunhuang have become rare treasures worldwide.

Gobi desert sand is always blown to this area threatening the existence of Dunhuang cave population

In addition to the natural threat to the surrounding environment, desert sand is always blown to this area threatening the existence of cave populations and the hidden treasure of ancient Buddhism. END=NAM MO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.5/1/2019.