Dunhuang

25Nov09

Dunhuang was an oasis area at the Western edge of China, and therefore a key location for the Silk Route. The society there went through many changes over historical time. There was links between the centre and the outskirts of China — cultural transmission occurred through the high level of travel through the area; of soldiers, monks, government officials, merchants, both Chinese as well as foreigners. China during the T’ang dynasty was a very open society in general. (Wood: 75)

Buddhism became the most important religious tradition organizing of daily life at Dunhuang; at least it seems so from the artefacts. The caves were the domain of the Buddhist monastery which may account for this sense of Buddhism dominating the region. The caves are called the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas close to the actual town border in the desert. (Wood: 88) Because it was a central oasis on the edge of the China frontier, it was a town which would attract Buddhist adherents, men and women monks and nuns, and also travelers, scholars, Silk Road merchants, explorers and so on. Here the daily events would probably consist of much prayer, meditation and ceremonies to aid travelers on their way to setting out to the vast desert to the West. (Wood: 88-90) It was also a place where families prospered, evident in the amount of material goods including clothing and daily implements found there. (Course Kit)

The caves are full of astrology star charts, silk paintings and thousands of Buddha statues. There is a great deal of wealth contained in the caves in the form of cups, bowls, dice, and terracotta and earthenware statues: of monks, of religious adherents, of warriors and mythological figures. (Dunhuang Museum Booklet in course kit) It must have been a lively place due to the numbers of people moving through the region, and a place where someone could make a life helping perform ongoing rituals to help people with their fortune – rituals to maintain life, happiness and good luck.

It was a society full of rowdy drinking parties of merchants or soldiers, private clubs associated in some way with Buddhist temples, and of a mix of men and women who searching for meaning, joined Buddhist monasteries, which were very strict and hierarchical in nature. Knowledge of life at the time comes from the letters found describing events, such as late night drinking sessions by merchants and soldiers or written petitions by family members to government officials showing how the centralization of Confucianism was also part of life in Dunhuang by the 9th century at least. (Dunhuang Museum Booklet 244-247)

Life was most likely a mix of rough and dangerous or for the time, luxurious and wealthy, depending on the social class: merchant, priest, artisan, scholar and so on. Many wars were ongoing, and much hardship and sadness was part of domestic life at times – husbands and wives in fear for the whereabouts of one another, as evidence in letters from the 10th century. (pg 249) The Buddhist monks operated schools where both Buddhism and Confucianism was taught, showing the reach of the Confucian civil bureaucracy throughout China by the 9th century. Life was also full of music and dance. Traveling players would come through the area, and music was part of household entertainment.

To conclude, it would have been a time where there was a mix of ongoing ritual practices in the town and in the Buddhist caves. It was a multicultural place, one where poverty and wealth mixed, and where there was an international exchange of ideas. Cultural changes would take place from the merging and exchange of cultural ideas, and the oasis was a place from which new ideas would cross the desert both into and out of China. Life there was most likely exciting, highly spiritual and ritualistic, and definitely fascinating for passing through.
huang was an oasis area at the Western edge of China, and therefore a key location for the Silk Route. The society there went through many changes over historical time. There was links between the centre and the outskirts of China — cultural transmission occurred through the high level of travel through the area; of soldiers, monks, government officials, merchants, both Chinese as well as foreigners. China during the T’ang dynasty was a very open society in general. (Wood: 75)

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