Staging Dunhuang Mogao Caves: Treasures from along the Silk Road

Historically a frontier metropolis, Dunhuang was a strategic site along the Silk Road in northwestern China, a crossroads of trade, and a locus for religious, cultural, and intellectual influences since the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). The 492 caves at the Mogao cliff near the modern town of Dunhuang have served as temples, sites for performative events, and an archive that consisted of medieval Chinese paintings and Buddhist sutras. Today, the Dunhuang Mogao Caves is among one of the most well-known UNESCO heritage sites along the ancient Silk Road. With technological advancements, the staging processes of the Dunhuang Mogao Caves are being developed into various forms by experts of heritage studies, from scholarly publications, theatrical dance drama, to the digital exhibition such as the Smithsonian’s Pure Land: Inside the Mogao Grottes at Dunhuang (Stromberg 2012) and most recently, the Getty Insitute’s Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China\u27s Silk Road (Sivak and Hood 2015). This presentation will introduce the heritage per se as well as the various forms of conservation and preservation of the Dunhuang Mogao Caves