Dunhuang

A site in northwestern China with many Buddhist sculptures, frescoes, and Mogao grottoes. It was a Chinese frontier outpost at a place where the Silk Route branched before crossing Central Asia. It was established as a Han military commandery in 111 BC and many documents and manuscripts dating from the Han dynasty have been found there. There is a complex of nearly 500 Buddhist cave temples with well-preserved paintings and sculptures. A Buddhist library walled up in a cave around 1035 and rediscovered in 1900 contained thousands of manuscripts written in Chinese and various Central Asian scripts, some with dates ranging from 406-996. Among the material in the British Museum is the oldest extant printed book in the world, a Chinese translation of the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text, dated 868 AD. Many other manuscripts and paintings obtained by Aurel Stein are kept at the British Museum.

[Tun-huang]. Chinese frontier outpost at the western end of the Gansu Corridor where the Silk Route branches before crossing Central Asia. Dunhuang was established as a Han military commandery in 111 bc and many documents and manuscripts dating from the Han dynasty have been found there. It was a flourishing Buddhist centre from the 4th to the 13th century ad, when the Silk Route was the main path taken by Buddhist missionaries and pilgrims between China and Central Asia and India. To this long period belongs a complex of nearly 500 Buddhist cave temples with well-preserved paintings and sculptures. A Buddhist library walled up in a cave around 1035 and rediscovered only in 1900 contained thousands of manuscripts written in Chinese and various Central Asian scripts, some with dates ranging from 406 to 996. Manuscripts and paintings on silk and paper from the Dunhuang library were obtained by Aurel Stein for the British Museum and Paul Pelliot for the Bibliothèque Nationale; others are now in Beijing and Japan. Among the material in the British Museum is the oldest extant printed book in the world, a Chinese translation of the - Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist text, dated 868.