The Mogao caves (« unparalled eminence ») – also known as ‘the Caves of a thousand Buddhas » - make up a system of 492 cave-chapels near Dunhuang, a vast oasis in the Gobi Desert in the western Chinese province of Gansu. Hewn out of the cliff, today they house a collection of statues and mural paintings making up “the largest Buddhist art treasure in the world”. This outstanding world heritage site, listed by Unesco since1987, has brought the Guimet Museum and Chinese Cultural Centre together to present an exhibition solely devoted to Dunhuang art, in an original and complementary display. Reflecting a thousand years of Buddhist art, these Mogao grottoes are an invitation to come on a journey.

Considered a premiere in France, this dual presentation associates two national institutions around one single event, and invites the visitor to two neighbouring venues. In the Guimet Museum, a new display will be enhanced in an original layout, identifying Chinese Buddhist works such as sculptures, liturgical and votive paintings as well as the statuary brought from the caves. As for the Chinese Cultural Centre, it will present life-size 3-D replicas of sculptures and mural paintings from the caves in a new construction which marks the reopening of the Centre, closed until very recently for renovation works.

The origin of the vast rock-hewn sanctuary devoted to the glory of Buddha goes back to the founding gesture of a monk who, in 366AD, had a vision there of a halo of light accompanied by the apparition of 1000 Buddhas. This spiritual experience determined the layout of the first cave-chapels. Continuing for centuries, the undertaking came to an end at the start of the 14th century. The collection allows the evolution of Buddhist doctrinal fashions and their routes of transmission to China, via the Silk Road, to be retraced. The caves naturally constitute an ideal place for meditation favouring the quest for spirituality by the monks, who were to perpetuate for centuries the tradition of mural paintings describing the life and work of the historic Buddha.

Certain caves house monumental statues of Buddha, produced in cob and painted in bright colours. The largest reaches its highest point at 34.5 metres. As for the chapels’ mural paintings, the oldest attest to western Indian inspiration, the latest various stylistic influences coming from Central Asia and the Himalayan regions of China. Abandoned in the 15th century and extremely exposed to the elements (wind, sand, water), many successively fell into ruin or were pillaged.

At the start of the 20th century, a Chinese Taoist caretaker in the premises unveiled a secret cave full of thousands of manuscripts in a great many languages: Chinese, Sogdian, Sanskrit, oriental Turkish and even Hebrew, dating from the 5th and 6th centuries, in addition to hundreds of religious documents and works from Tibet. A priceless treasure-trove, consisting for the most part of Buddhist sûtras, alongside various texts: historic archives, anthologies of Chinese literature, Taoist and Confucian writings, administrative documents etc.; as well as printed prayer-books, produced six hundred years before the great Gutenberg Bibles. We are unaware of the reasons for these secretly conserved archives and depot, but the date of their sealing has been revealed as going back to the beginning of the 11th century. In 1908, the sinologist Paul Pelliot (1878 – 1945) penetrated “cave n° 17”. Filled with wonder, he consulted thousands of manuscripts and was to negotiate the purchase of part of the priest’s treasure. It was all deposited in Paris, in the National Library and the Louvre Museum which then transferred them to the Guimet Museum in the 1920s. The improbably survivors of a moving heritage, remaining intact after nine centuries, these miracles of history throw a unique light on that period of great artistic activity at Dunhuang influenced by India, Central Asia and Tibet.

Through its association with the event, the Guimet Museum again shows its deep involvement in projects carried out in close collaboration, with a view to protecting world heritage and its rediscovered treasures. The Guimet exhibition takes place under the patronage of the Crédit Agricole.

General information :

Two exhibitions from 21 November 2008 to 28 February 2009 at the Guimet Museum and Chinese Cultural Centre in Paris :

Musée Guimet
6 , place d’Iéna
75116 Paris
Tel : 01 56 52 53 00

Centre culturel de Chine
1 boulevard de la Tour-Maubourg
75007 Paris
Tel : 01 53 59 59 20

With the sponsorship of Crédit Agricole :

With Maison de la Chine