The term “Silk Road” was coined in the nineteenth century by German geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen to describe the informal network of roads that connected China to Central and South Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Along its corridors between 200 BCE and 1500 CE flowed trade goods, technology, and weapons, as well as social, cultural and religious ideas. Religions like Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoastrianism, Manicheanism, Judaism, Islam, and Nestorian Christianity all traveled the Silk Road at different times and different places. Buddhism followed this route to China from India and Central Asia.
The Chinese city of Dunhuang was strategically located along the Silk Road on the western frontier of China at the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. It became an important place to stop, rest, pick up provisions, and trade. Between the fourth and fourteenth centuries, thousands of Buddhist cave sanctuaries were carved from the sandstone hills about 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang. These caves served the religious and secular purposes of a vibrant Buddhist community. Fortunately hundreds of caves survived intact to the present. Artifacts from the caves include murals, sculptures, paintings, manuscripts, and textiles. After removal of many artifacts to Western countries in the early twentieth century, the Chinese government set up the Dunhuang Research Academy to oversee the study and preservation of the Dunhuang caves.
ARTstor provides thousands of high resolution images of the Dunhuang caves and their contents through its Mellon International Dunhuang Archive collection. MIDA “is the product of a major and ongoing multi-institutional, multi-national effort to create high-quality digital reconstructions of the mural paintings and related art and texts associated with the several hundred Buddhist cave shrines in Dunhuang, China”. Images come from the caves themselves, from artifacts found in collections worldwide, and from the Lo Archive at Princeton University.
Each image comes with a complete description that allows for easy access. You can browse the Dunhuang Archive by Object Type, Cave Number, or Contributor. The Advanced Search lets you perform complex keyword searches while limiting your search by Collection and Object Classification. I’ve created a few Image Groups below to give you a small taste of what’s in this collection. You will have to disable your popup blockers to view the images.
Image Groups
Dunhuang Buddha paintings
Dunhuang Bodhisattva, Buddha sculptures
More Dunhuang Bodhisattva, Buddha sculptures
Other Links
Historic Maps of China (click on the timeline to see the borders of China during each dynasty)
Buddhist Art in China
Buddhist Art in Central Asia
Buddhist Art in India
Silk Road (saved search from Oxford Reference Online)