Rare Buddhist art from China goes on show in New York

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Dunhuang:

Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road

April 19 – July 21, 2013

China Institute Gallery, New York

An oasis city on the edge of the Gobi Desert, Dunhuang is home to the world’s most magnificent ancient Buddhist cave shrines, the Mogao Caves.  For the first time in the USA an exhibition of rare treasures from the site will be on view at China Institute Gallery.‘Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road’, on view from 19 April  – 21 July 2013, will present a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see sculptures, scrolls, and other objects dating back more than a thousand years. The exhibition launches a year-long programme at China Institute Gallery celebrating the arrival of treasures from the Mogao Caves, identified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987. ‘The Year of Dunhuang’ will include a second exhibition in the fall, as well as symposia, courses, lectures, and two exhibition catalogues.The rich cultural history of Dunhuang comes in part from its location between Mongolia and Tibet on the Silk Road. A crucial hub for East-West trade, it was where ‘traditions of China and Western countries met, collided and merged’, as Fan Jinshi, Director, Dunhuang Academy, notes in the catalogue essay. The western gateway to China, Dunhuang also boasts more than 800 caves, including the celebrated Mogao Caves, Yulin Caves and Western Thousand Buddha Caves, carved into the cliffs.

‘Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road’ will feature work found in the caves, including sutras (Buddhist scriptures on paper scrolls), high-reliefclay figures, wooden sculpture, silk banners, and moulded bricks from the golden eras of the Northern dynasties (420–589) and Tang dynasty (618–907). To re-create the magnificent cave settings, a replica cave from the 8th century that contains the beautiful Bodhisattva of the Mogao Caves and a central pillar from the 6th century will also be on view.

Dunhuang’s history dates back to the 4th century. While the development of Buddhist culture in Dunhuang was inevitable, cave construction at Mogao in Dunhuang started quite accidentally. It is thought that a travelling monk arrived at Mount Mogao in 366 CE and suddenly saw golden lights appearing from the spot. He dug a cave into the cliff and built a shrine. A Zen master hollowed out a second cave next to it, and thus began the tradition of cave building in Dunhuang, which was to last for more than a thousand years.

Among the highlights in ‘Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road’ will be a group of treasured sutras from the famous Hidden Library Cave, as well as scrolls from the Northern, Tang, and Northern Song dynasties. The Hidden Library Cave was discovered by a Daoist priest in 1900 while cleaning a cave next door. Sealed off since the 11th century, the cave contained one of the greatest treasure troves of ancient documents ever found. All in all, more than 50,000 objects, including cultural treasures such as Buddhist manuscripts, paintings, and religious objects, were discovered. This remarkable discovery introduced Dunhuang to the entire world. As Fan Jinshi, Director, Dunhuang Academy, writes in the catalogue essay,

His path-breaking discovery provided the world with a large number of study materials for the history, geography, religion, economics, politics, language, literature, art and science of China and Western Asia. These documents have been affectionately called the ‘Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages’and the ‘ocean of ancient knowledge’.

‘Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road’ will show some of the artists’ tools used to create the extraordinary frescoes that covered the walls, including paint mixing bowls and oil lamps to illuminate the dark caves. Not even the floors of the caves were ignored: Tang dynasty bricks moulded with lotus flowers representing purity were used to pave the grounds in the caves.

In a tradition that continues in China today, followers leave messages at Buddhist temples with their wishes and hopes for the future. At Dunhuang in the Tang dynasty, silk banners were used for offerings to Buddha, and two such samples are included in the exhibition. A number of other objects on view bear witness to the activities of travellers on the Silk Road, including Persian silver coins and a carved wooden sculpture of a man with Western features from the Tang dynasty.

Over the years, many of these objects from Dunhuang have been dispersed to museums in other countries, and The International Dunhuang Project, an international organization to organize and digitize them, was founded in 1994. Notes Willow Weilan Hai Chang, Director, China Institute Gallery:

The preservation of Dunhuang caves is of enormous concern. Access is being restricted to some of the caves as parts of this fragile site are deteriorating. China Instituteis honoured to offer the first opportunity in the US to see these remarkable treasures from Dunhuang.

This exhibition is organized by China Institute Gallery and the Dunhuang Academy. It is directed by Willow Weilan Hai Chang, Director, China Institute Gallery, and curated by Fan Jinshi, Director, Dunhuang Academy.

‘Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road’ is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the generous support of Blakemore Foundation, the E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and China Institute Friends of the Gallery.

China Institute in America, 125 E 65th St  New York, NY 10065