Vast Chinese Walls Series: Buddhist Karma’s Blessing

Rammed earth wall stooped in shadow of today

Buddhist karma’s blessing beckons not far away.

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The oasis crossroads of Dunhuang is famous. The nearby Mogao Buddhist Caves were carved into the pebbly, sandstone cliff above the Dachuan River outside the town between 800 and 1,600+ years ago. The full tableau of the Buddhist cycle of life-death-nirvana is evidenced in Dunhuang. The Mogao Caves paradise (nirvana) faces easterly across a desert plain of a long-ago cemetery (death) to the oasis town of the living.

Approximately 500 decorated caves were commissioned to acquire merit and good karma. The ten caves we saw ranged from the 5th to 8th centuries CE. Flying apsaras soar above playing their instruments. A thousand Buddha images fill ceilings in tiny painted cartouches. The period statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are intimately lifelike and contemplative. Those rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty are flat and inanimate.

There are endless stories in the caves. It is said that Cave 96 was inspired, if not commissioned, by Tang Dynasty Empress, Wu Zetian, the only female Empress of China, in the 7th century to demonstrate her Buddhist bona fides. The mammoth sandstone Maitreya within is the largest Bodhisattva (future Buddha) at Mogao (3rd largest in China).

One of four, smaller offering Bodhisattvas is missing from Cave 328, spirited to America by Langdon Warner. Some of the 8th century wall paintings were changed in the 11th century when the Tanguts ruled the region.

The Chinese housed Russians fleeing the 1917 revolution in Cave 257 for one-and-a-half years. Black streaks from cooking fires stain a corner of the 5th century cave. For all the damage from refugees and exposure to the elements, the rare lapis designs painted above the Buddha and the figures decorating the rear wall remain vibrant and, in the favorite word of our guide, fresh.

A twisting, low-ceilinged, secret flight of stairs behind a door marked Cave 162 leads to double-locked, special access Cave 158. This unrestored 8th century cave contains a 16-meter reclining Buddha entering nirvana. The cave, built when Tibetans occupied the area, is shaped and ceilinged like a coffin. Heavy dust has fused with the mineral pigments over the centuries so the Buddha is a faded sandy black. This large Shakyamuni Buddha is the definition of serene. Statues of Buddhas of the Past and Future flank either end. Dozens of disciples and Bodhisattvas are painted on the rear wall, each with a different, anguished expression. Foreign envoys painted at the Buddha's feet express their sorrow with personal mutilation, cutting an ear, stabbing a chest, piercing a heart.

Photographs are prohibited in the Caves. They are allowed in re-created caves at the exhibition hall. Our last cave was special access Cave 217. Cave 217 has been re-created. While technically perfect, the latter re-creations lack the intense feel of the real caves. The cool, pitch-dark rooms with soaring ceilings. The glitter of dust in the guide's flashlight beam. The palpable weight of centuries. Cave 217 was built during the High Tang in the 8th century. A Mrs. Liu commissioned the cave and had her image painted on the easterly, inside front wall filled with stories of people appealing to Guanyin for help. Amitabha and the Pure Land fill the northerly wall with intricate detail. The six Bodhisattva statues missing from the main westerly niche in the original are also absent here.