The Dunhuang and Yulin cave museum complexes

Abstract

The article examines the caves of Dunhuang and Yulin — world famous Buddhist complexes. The tradition of cave temples with wall paintings and sculpture came from India. The Dunhuang and Yulin caves were decorated in this manner. The highest peak in the development of Dunhuang art falls on the period of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it was at this time that numerous murals appeared depicting the Pure Land of Buddha Amitabha, the Lord of the West, where the souls of the righteous dwell, the Pure Land of Buddha of healing Bhaishajyaguru and other subjects. The main source for the creation of works of art in Dunhuang was Chinese Buddhism, which was formed under the influence of local cults and beliefs and was reflected in the sutras. A certain influence on the painting of Dunhuang was exerted by the art of the cave complexes of the Great Silk Road, and later by the artistic and iconographic traditions of the Tanguts and Mongols. The findings from Dunhuang in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum includes three hundred items. In 1914–1915, the Second Russian Turkestan Expedition under the leadership of academician S. F. Oldenburg worked there and brought these artifacts back. In addition, the expedition acquired a large number of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Chinese, Uyghur, Sogdian, Tibetan and Tangut. Currently, these priceless monuments are kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in St. Petersburg. The Dunhuang and Yulin cave complexes are a monument of world culture in terms of their size, quantity and quality of paintings, as well as in the variety of subjects, which constitute an encyclopedia of Buddhism in pictorial and sculptural images.