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Copy Rights 2007-. All right reserved.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the 1988 Japanese film, see .
Alternative Chinese name
Second alternative Chinese name
Literal meaning
Dunhuang (  ) is a -level
in northwestern
Province, . The
reported a population of 187,578 in this city. Dunhuang was a major stop on the ancient
and is best known for the nearby . It has also been known at times as Shazhou and, in , Dukhan.
Dunhuang is situated in a rich
containing
(, meaning "Singing-Sand Mountain"), named after the sound of the wind whipping off the dunes, the
phenomenon. Dunhuang commands a strategic position at the crossroads of the ancient Southern
and the main road leading from India via
and Southern , as well as controlling the entrance to the narrow , which led straight to the heart of the north Chinese plains and the ancient capitals of
(today known as Xi'an) and .
Administratively, the county-level city of Dunhuang is part of the
The ruins of a
(202 BC - 220 AD) Chinese
at Dunhuang.
There is evidence of human habitation in the Dunhuang area as early as 2,000 BC, possibly by people recorded as the
in Chinese history. Its name was also mentioned in relation to the homeland of the
in the . While some[] have argued that this may refer to the unrelated
, the archaeologist Lin Meicun has suggested that Dunhuan may be a Chinese name for the
– a people widely believed to be a Central Asian offshoot of the Yuezhi.
By the third century BC, the area became dominated by the , but came under Chinese rule during the
Dunhuang was one of the four frontier
towns (along with ,
and ) established by the Emperor Wu after the defeat of Xiongnu, and the Chinese built fortifications at Dunhuang and sent settlers there. The name Dunhuang, meaning "Blazing Beacon", refers to the beacons lit to warn of attacks by marauding nomadic tribes. Dunhuang Commandery was probably established shortly after 104 BC. Located in the western end of the
near the historic junction of the
and Southern , Dunhuang was a town of military importance.
"The Great Wall was extended to Dunhuang, and a line of fortified beacon towers stretched westwards into the desert. By the second century AD Dunhuang had a population of more than 76,000 and was a key supply base for caravans that passed through the city: those setting out for the arduous trek across the desert loaded up with water and food supplies, and others arriving from the west gratefully looked upon the mirage-like sight of Dunhuang's walls, which signified safety and comfort. Dunhuang prospered on the heavy flow of traffic. The first Buddhist caves in the Dunhuang area were hewn in 353."
During the
(581-618) and
(618-907) dynasties, it was the main stop of communication between ancient China and the rest of the world and a major hub of commerce of the Silk Road. Dunhuang was the intersection city of all three main silk routes(north, central, south) during this time.
From the West also came early
monks who had arrived in China by the first century AD, and a sizable Buddhist community eventually developed in Dunhuang. The caves carved out by the monks, originally used for meditation, developed into a place of worship and pilgrimage called the
or "Caves of a Thousand Buddhas." A number of Christian, Jewish, and
artifacts have also been found in the caves (see for example ), testimony to the wide variety of people who made their way along the Silk Road.
During the time of the ,
established the
here in 400 AD. In 405 the capital of the Western Liang was moved from Dunhuang to . In 421 the Western Liang was conquered by the .
(618-907) Buddhist sutra fragment from Dunhuang
As a frontier town, Dunhuang was fought over and occupied at various times by non-Han Chinese people. After the fall of Han Dynasty it was under the rule of various nomadic tribes such as the
and the Turkic
during . The
occupied Dunhuang when the Tang empire became weakened con and even though it was later returned to Tang rule, it was under quasi-autonomous rule by the local general
who expelled the Tibetans in 848. After the fall of Tang, Zhang's family formed the Kingdom of Golden Mountain in 910, but in 911 it came under the influence of the . The Zhangs were succeeded by the Cao family who formed alliances with the
and the . During the , Dunhuang fell outside the Chinese borders. In 1036 the
who founded the
Dynasty captured Dunhuang. From the Tang reconquest of 848 to about 1000 (i.e. era of the ), Dunhuang was a vibrant multicultural
that contained one of the largest ethnic
communities in China following the An Lushan Rebellion. Their
and bilingualism in
is apparent in various documents, both religious and secular, showing
written horizontally, to be read from left to right (instead of vertically), just how the
Dunhuang was conquered in 1227 by the
who sacked and destroyed the town, and the rebuilt town became part of China again when
conquered the rest of China under the . Dunhuang went into a steep decline after the Chinese trade with the outside world became dominated by Southern sea-routes, and the Silk Road was officially abandoned during the . It was occupied again by the Tibetans c. 1516, and also came under the influence of the
in the early sixteenth century. It retaken by China two centuries later c. 1715 during the , and the present-day city of Dunhuang was established east of the ruined old city in 1725.
Dunhuang classical dance
Today, the site is an important
attraction and the subject of an ongoing archaeological project. A large number of
and artifacts retrieved at Dunhuang have been digitized and made publicly available via the . The expansion of the , which is resulting from long-standing
of surrounding lands, has reached the edges of the city.
In 2011 satellite images showing huge structures in the desert near Dunhuang surfaced online and caused a brief media stir.
Main article:
A number of Buddhist cave sites are located in the Dunhuang area, the most important of these is the
which is located 25 km (16 mi) southeast of Dunhuang. There are 735 caves in Mogao, and the caves in Mogao are particularly noted for their Buddhist art, as well as the hoard of manuscripts, the , found hidden in a sealed-up cave. Many of these caves were covered with murals and contain many Buddhist statues. Discoveries continue to be found in the caves, including excerpts from a Christian "Holy Bible" dating to the .
Numerous smaller Buddhist cave sites are located in the region, including the , the Eastern Thousands Buddha Caves, and the Five Temple site. The
are located further east in .
Crescent Lake
The , built in 111 BC, located 90 km (56 mi) northwest of Dunhuang in the Gobi desert.
ruins of a
in Hecang Fortress (Chinese: 河仓城； Pinyin: Hécāngchéng), located ~11 km (7 miles) northeast of the Western-Han-era , were built during the
(202 BC - 9 AD) and significantly rebuilt during the
(280-316 AD).
Dunhuang Night Market is a
held on the main thoroughfare, Dong Dajie, in the city centre of Dunhuang, popular with tourists during the summer months. Many souvenir items are sold, including such typical items as , jewelry, scrolls, hangings, small sculptures, leather shows puppets, coins, Tibetan horns and Buddha statues. A sizable number of
engage in business at these markets. A
dessert or sweet is also sold, consisting of a large, sweet
and , sliced into the portion desired by the customer.
Yumen has a cold desert climate ( BWk), with an annual total precipitation of 67 millimetres (2.64 in), the majority of wh precipitation occurs only in trace amounts and quickly evaporates. Winters are long and cold, with a 24-hour average temperature of -8.3 °C (17.1 °F) in January, while summers are hot, with a July average of 24.6 °C (76.3 °F); the annual mean is 9.48 °C (49.1 °F). The
averages 16.1 °C (29.0 °F) annually. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 69% in March to 82% in October, the city receives 3,258 hours of bright sunshine annually, making it one of the sunniest nationwide.
Climate data for Dunhuang ()
Average high °C (°F)
Average low °C (°F)
mm (inches)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)
Mean monthly
Dunhuang train station
Dunhuang is served by
A railway branch known as the
(柳敦铁路), constructed in , connects Dunhuang with the Liugou Station on the
(in ). There is regular passenger service on the line, with overnight trains from Dunhuang to
There are plans to extend the railway from Dunhuang further south into , connecting Dunhuang to
(near ) on the . Construction work on this
started in October 2012, and is expected to be completed in 5 years.
(as a decorative )
The Singing Sand Dunes on the eastern edge of the
near Dunhuang.
Sculpture in Dunhuang, after a mural in , depicting an
playing the
behind her back (: 反弹琵琶伎乐天).
Dunhuang Airport.
Mogao Caves, a.k.a. Dunhuang Grottoes.
Cable and French (1943), p. 41.
Skrine (1926), p. 117.
Lovell (2006), pp. 74-75.
Lin Meicun (1998 ), The Western Regions of the Han–Tang Dynasties and the Chinese Civilization [Chinese language only], Beijing, Wenwu Chubanshe, pp. 64–67.
Hulsewé, A. F. P. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. Leiden, E. Brill, . pp.75-76
Hill (2015), Vol. I, pp. 137-140.
Bonavia (2004), p. 162.
The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, by
. Silkroad Foundation.
Galambos, Imre (2015), "She Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture, Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 853-77.
Tim Pepper (1996). Trudy Ring, Noelle Watson, Paul Schellinger, eds. . Routledge. pp. 239–241.  .
Whitfield, Roderick, , and Neville Agnew. (2000). Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Art and History on the Silk Road. The British Library.  .
Dunhuang Mogao caves art museum
Wang Xudang, Li Zuixiong, and Zhang Lu (2010). "Condition, Conservation, and Reinforcement of the Yumen Pass and Hecang Earthen Ruins Near Dunhuang", in Neville Agnew (ed), Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang, People's Republic of China, June 28 - July 3, 2004, 351-357. Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, J. Paul Getty Trust. , pp 351-352.
China. Eye Witness Travel Guides. p. 494.
, Renmin Tielu Bao,
Baumer, Christoph. 2000. Southern Silk Road: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin. White Orchid Books. Bangkok.
Beal, Samuel. 1884. Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Hiuen Tsiang. 2 vols. Trans. by Samuel Beal. London. Reprint: Delhi. Oriental Books Reprint Corporation. 1969.
Beal, Samuel. 1911. The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang by the Shaman Hwui Li, with an Introduction containing an account of the Works of I-Tsing. Trans. by Samuel Beal. London. 1911. Reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi. 1973.
Bonavia, Judy (2004): The Silk Road From Xi'an to Kashgar. Judy Bonavia – revised by Christoph Baumer. 2004. Odyssey Publications.
Cable, Mildred and Francesca French (1943): The Gobi Desert. London. Landsborough Publications.
Galambos, Imre (2015), "She Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture, Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 853–77.
Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation.
Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. J. Brill, Leiden.
Legge, James. Trans. and ed. 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk F?-hsien of his travels in India and Ceylon (AD 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Reprint: Dover Publications, New York. 1965.
Lok, Wai-ying. (2012). The significance of Dunhuang iconography from the perspective of Buddhist philosophy: a study mainly based on Cave 45 (PDF) (PhD Dissertation). The University of Hong Kong.
Lovell, Julia (2006). The Great Wall : China against the World. 1000 BC — AD 2000. Atlantic Books, London. .
Skrine, C. P. (1926). Chinese Central Asia. Methuen, London. Reprint: Barnes & Noble, New York. 1971. .
1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford.
1921. Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980.
Watson, Burton (1993). Records of the Grand Historian of China. Han Dynasty II. (Revised Edition). New York, Columbia University Press.
Watters, Thomas (). On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India. London. Royal Asiatic Society. Reprint: 1973.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to .
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for .
- includes tens of thousands of digitised manuscripts and paintings from Dunhuang, along with historical photographs and archival material
. Silk Road Seattle. USA: , University of Washington.
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