Hidden for a millennium, a sealed cave within the Mogao Grottoes contained tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts, silk paintings, and artifacts, showcasing medieval Central Asian culture.
xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
An Accidental Discovery
On June 22, 1900, a Daoist monk named Wang Yuanlu, the self-appointed guardian of the Mogao Grottoes, made a discovery that would reshape the study of the Silk Road. While clearing sand from a main cave (now known as Cave 16), he noticed a crack in a wall. Behind a layer of plaster and murals, he found a hidden, sealed doorway. Opening it revealed a small chamber, about three meters from floor to ceiling, crammed with a solid mass of manuscript bundles nearly ten feet high.
This chamber, now designated Cave 17, had been sealed around the year 1002 CE. The reasons for its sealing are not definitively known. Theories suggest the documents were hidden to protect them from invasion or that the cave was a sacred repository for worn or damaged religious texts. Originally, the cave was constructed in the 9th century as a memorial chapel for a prominent monk named Hong Bian. The dry desert air of the Gobi had preserved the contents in remarkable condition for nearly 900 years. The total number of items found is estimated to be between 40,000 and 50,000.
A Library of the Silk Road
The contents of the "Library Cave" included Buddhist scriptures. The treasure trove included official records, legal contracts, financial ledgers, calendars, medical texts, and even personal letters. The documents create a detailed picture of life in a multicultural oasis town during the medieval period. The collection’s linguistic diversity is immense, with manuscripts written in Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Sogdian, Khotanese, and Uyghur, among others.
One of the most significant finds is a copy of the Diamond Sutra, an important Mahayana Buddhist text. A colophon at the end of the scroll states it was printed on May 11, 868 CE, making it the world's oldest dated, complete printed book. The 16-foot-long scroll was made using woodblock printing on seven sheets of paper.
Following the discovery, explorers and archaeologists, including Britain's Aurel Stein in 1907 and France's Paul Pelliot in 1908, learned of the cave. They purchased tens of thousands of manuscripts from Wang Yuanlu, which led to the collection's dispersal across institutions like the British Museum and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
💡Fun Facts
The cave contained the Dunhuang Star Chart, a manuscript from the Tang Dynasty (c. 700 CE) that is one of the oldest known graphical atlases of the stars, plotting over 1,300 individual stars.
Among the religious texts and official documents was a letter of apology from a man who had behaved poorly after drinking too much at a party.
A legal contract for the sale of a slave for six bolts of plain silk, dated to 690 CE, shows the social and economic systems of the time.
The Library Cave held an estimated 4,000 copies of the Lotus Sutra, evidence of its popularity in the Dunhuang region.
Peak Season (April 1 - November 30): 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM. Off-Peak Season (December 1 - March 31): 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM. The site may close during severe weather like sandstorms.
Admission
Ticket prices vary by season and ticket type. A standard "Type A" ticket in peak season is 258 RMB and includes an English-language guide, access to 8 caves, and two introductory films. It is highly recommended to book tickets at least a month in advance online, especially during peak season, as daily visitor numbers are limited to 6,000.
Accessibility
The site is large and requires a significant amount of walking. The tour involves moving between different caves, some of which may have stairs. Photography is strictly forbidden inside the caves to protect the delicate murals.
