HE WAS HERE BEFORE BUT../ Dunhuang / 20.6. 2007

It is a mirage. The desert is endless and rough. It is of course hot too. Still we have quite a way to go before we reach Dunhuang

But this is a real mirage. Looks like a mountain, with forest.. Far away in the distance. Unfortunately it is floating. So we continue. Few hours later we see the real Qilian Mountains. And some green areas too. It feels good to be on this side of the desert. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- “ Tunhuang 16.11. 1907 …. Farming is the main occupation in this oasis. Wheat, peas, corn and opium (the opium fields covers 1/3 of the arable land), which is the most commonly cultivated crop. …By order of the Emperor, the cultivation of opium has to be restricted and in the future totally prohibited. To grow opium is one of the most important sources of income and no restrictions have yet come into place but the population has limited the sowing. Upon my question if this order was unfair in their opinion – the people answered only that if the emperor wishes then it must happen….. My intention was to visit a temple, carved into to the mountain - but the amounts of pheasants were too tempting. I did shoot two of them – unfortunately female pheasants though. As too much time had been spent on this hunt our arrival to the temple caves was so late that we had to change plans and start looking for the nearest saraj. So I had to dismiss the “ thousand Buddha’s.. “ --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Mogao Caves in Dunhuang are maybe the world’s most valued collection of Buddhist manuscripts, statues and frescoes. They span over thousand years – from the 4th century to the 14th and they mark in many ways the height of Buddhist art. It is said that I 336, a monk called Lie Zun came upon a cliff and had a vision of thousand golden rays of light shining upon him like as many Buddhas. So asked a pilgrim to have one of the smaller caves painted as a shrine to make sure that his own journey would be safe. Many other pilgrims followed the example and the result is this amazing amount of decorated caves – truly like a great art gallery of the desert. These caves were more or less forgotten until 1900 when a Taoist priest by the name of Wang Yuanlu. Wang had discovered the secret cave was filled with over 50.000 manuscripts from the temple library –covering everything from religious text to documents on literature, history, medicine and economics. These treasures were sealed in one secret cave in the 11th century to be protected from ravaging wars at the time. The ruler of Gansu could not afford to have them moved to safety so he ordered them to be sealed. And some 900 years later Wang sold some of the manuscripts to excited foreign explorers. The German archaeologist Albert von Le Coq heard of these documents in 1905 – but as the temples were still in use it would have been very difficult to remove anything. Two years later, in 1907 the British explorer Sir Aurel Stein managed to convince Wang to sell many documents that are now to bee seen at the British Museum. Paul Pelliot, Mannerheims travel companion, was the second to get hold of this fantastic collection and they can be seen at the Guimet Museum in Paris. Pelliot arrived to Dunhuang after Mannerheim – but hunting other than documents did not tempt him.. The caves are truly fantastic – and it would have been great to see them without the protecting constructions made in the early 1960s. Luckily these treasures were saved from the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Today Dunhuang is one of the foremost tourist attractions in China. The city itself is all geared up to visitors and it looks like any other modern Chinese city of its size. More than 15.000 people live here and it is hard to believe that this city once was number two in sizes and importance. This was at the heydays of the Silk Road when almost all trade passed through. Farming is still important and the city is very green. Here is another great attraction here – the beautiful sand dunes and the adjoining moon crescent lake. But they are so exploited that it is yet another Chinese Disney World. After two days here, our journey continued to the northeast and the city of Jiayuguan with its massive fort at the western end of the Great Wall of Ch

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