Mogao Cave Complex (the name first appears in the Sui manuscript of the late 6th century AD and can be translated as "Low Caves" or "Caves at desert heights"), also known as Dunhuang Caves or the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas (Qian-fo tong located 25 km southeast of the modern city of Dunhuang, the center of the eponymous county of Gangxu Province It is one of the most famous cave Buddhist monasteries in the world. In 1961, it was included in the protected register of especially important cultural monuments of the People's Republic of China, and in 1987 - in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. The complex has gained worldwide fame both for its unique paintings and statues, and because of the unique size and value of the library of ancient manuscripts and woodcuts found in it.

Keywords: Dunhuang caves, Buddhist monasteries, cave temples, Dunhuang manuscripts.

The traditional version of the monastery's foundation is described in a stele dating from the first year of the reign of Sheng-li ("Divine Age") (698-699) of Empress Wu Zetian (684-704) - "Zhong xiu Mogao-ku Fo-kan bei" ("Stele on the re-construction of Buddhist temples in Mogao caves") found in Dunhuang cave No. 332. In the second year of the reign of Emperor Shih Tzu (357-385) of the Early Qin dynasty (351-395), under the motto of Jian Yuan ("Building the Eternal") (365-370), the Buddhist ascetic Le Zun traveled to these places and suddenly saw a golden glow, in the outlines of which he saw a thousand Buddhas and, obeying a sign from above, dug in the eastern slope of the Mingshashan Mountains ("Singing Sand Mountains") to the west of the San Weishan Mountains ("Three dangerous mountains") cave and settled in it. Soon, a Chang monk named Falyang came from the east and joined the founder of the monastery in digging a cave in the mountainside. This was the beginning of the monastery.

Similar dates for the foundation of the monastery are also given in two later monuments: in the Late Chinese manuscript dating back to the era of the Five Dynasties (907 - 960), found in Dunhuang cave N 156 (N3720 collection of Paul Pelliot) "Mogao-ku ji" ("Records of the caves of Mogao"), it is reported that the monastery was built in the middle of the Middle East. founded in the era of the reign under the motto Jian-Yuan (365-385), without specifying the year; a slightly later, badly damaged scroll (N 2691 of the Pellio collection), also dating from the era of the Five Dynasties, " Shazhou tu jing "("Mirror of the land of Shazhou "(Late German name of Dunhuang County. - S. D.), informs that the foundation of the monastery is located from the year of writing of the text (949) to

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596 years old and refers to the eighth year of the era of the reign under the motto Yonghe ("True Harmony") (345-356) of the Mu-di Emperor (344 - 361) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420), i.e. to 352. The oldest surviving caves belong to the period of the Northern Liang Dynasty (397 - 439) (for more details, see [Duan Wenxie, 1998; Ma Shizhang, 1998(1)]). In any case, the monastery was founded during one of the periods of fragmentation and decline in Chinese history, when Dunhuang was almost cut off from the central regions of the country. However, it was not long before the Northern Wei Dynasty (386 - 534) came to power, during which Northern China was re-united, and Buddhism reached a hitherto unprecedented flourishing in the Middle Kingdom, as evidenced by the giant cave complexes erected by the Northern Wei rulers, such as Longmen near Luoyang and Yungang in the north of the province Shaanxi.

Of course, the location of the monastery was not chosen by chance. The city of Dunhuang, already mentioned in the" Historical Notes " (Shi ji) Sima Qian, as one of the centers of the Yuezhi tribe, became a county seat during the reign of the Han Wu-di (140-87), in 117 BC. For centuries, the city was an extremely important point on the Great Silk Road - it was here that this famous trade road diverged into two paths, north and south, to circumnavigate the deadly Taklamakan desert. In fact, Dunhuang was the extreme western point of the Chinese world, the western gate of the Middle Kingdom. It was through Dunhuang that Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Nestorian Christianity came to China. Until the arrival of Islam in East Turkestan in the IX-X centuries. (in the eastern regions of the region, for example, in Turfan, Islam was established much later, not earlier than the XV century.) The cities of the Great Silk Road abounded with Buddhist temples and monasteries, including cave ones. One of these complexes, the most grandiose and best survived the centuries of neglect and decline, was destined to become the Mogao caves.

The monastery existed and developed for almost a thousand years, and each dynasty that controlled this region added something more or less significant to its paintings and statues, and more and more caves were cut into the mountainside. In a scroll called "Li And hsiu Fo-kan bei-wen" ("Text of the stele on the construction of Li and Buddhist temples") (N 2551 of the Pellio collection) it is said that by 698 the complex consisted of more than a thousand caves. 735 grottoes have come down to our time, 492 of which have preserved wall paintings and statues. The caves are divided into two groups, the southern one (487 caves) and the northern one (248), but only five caves of the second group have traces of ornaments. The caves stretch for almost 1000 m along the mountain slope, in the central part of the complex there are five rows of caves one above the other. More than 45 thousand square meters of wall paintings, about 2,100 statues and 1,300 reliefs, 5 original wooden buildings have been preserved.1
Discover and learn. The fate of the Dunhuang manuscripts. As we have already noted, the Mogao Monastery was abandoned around the end of the 13th century (some researchers believe that this happened a century later). From time to time, travelers stumbled upon these caves, decorated with colorful paintings and numerous statues, many of them left written evidence of this. The earliest of these dates back to 1715; during the Yongzheng ("Harmonious Directness") era (1723-1735), the governor of Dunhuang, Wang Lung, wrote a poem praising the Mogao murals; during the Jiaqing era (1796-1820), the caves were visited by the famous explorer of the northwest regions of the empire Xu Song (1781-1848), who mentioned them in his work "Xi-yu shui-tao chi"

1 For more information about the Dunhuang caves as an art monument, see: [Dmitriev 2010; Su Mo, 1988; Duan Wenxie, 1998; Dunhuang bihua, 1956; Dunhuang caixu, 1960; Dunhuang yishuhuaku, 1957; Zhongguo shiku ..., 1981 - 1984; Basil, 1959].

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Table

Dynamics of construction activity in Mogao caves2

("Notes on the rivers and paths of the Western Region"), describing the history of the monastery's creation and existence, as well as mentioning written sources that mention it [Ma Shizhang, 1998(1)]. However, the actual discovery of the Mogao Caves is inextricably linked to the penetration of European scientists and travelers into China and Central Asia (see Hopkirk, 1980).

2 The table is based on the following data: [Ma Shizhang, 1998 (1)].

3 A number of researchers believe that these caves are more correctly attributed to the Northern Wei period.

4 Years in which the dynasty actually controlled the Dunhuang area.

5 Since the middle of this period, the Dunhuang region has not really been controlled by the central government. After the An Lu-shan Rebellion (755), the weakened Tang government largely lost control of the northwestern regions of the empire. In 764-766, the Tibetans occupied the center and northwest of modern China. in the southern Chinese province of Gansu, as a result of which the Shazhou district with its center in Dunhuang was completely cut off from China and in 787 fell to the onslaught of the Tibetan power. In 848, a representative of the local Chinese trading family, Zhang Yi-chao, led a rebellion that ended with the departure of Tibetan troops and the rise to power of the Zhang family, who notified the Tang government of their loyalty, of course, completely formal. The central government announced the creation of the Guiyi-jun military governorate ("Army that went over to the side of Justice") in Shazhou, with Zhang Yi-chao "appointed" as its head, and later the title of governor (jiedushi) was inherited. In 905, the next governor, Zhang Cheng-feng decides to break with the dying Tang Dynasty and create his own state of Western Han of the Golden Mountains (Xi Han Jin-shan), which he planned to include in addition to the Dunhuang region, the Uyghur principalities of Ganzhou and Turfan. These claims provoked an immediate reaction from the Uighurs, and in 911 Zhang Cheng-feng's forces were defeated, and an uprising began in Dunhuang against him, led by a Sughd representative.

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Table (end)

At the end of the 19th century, a Taoist monk Wang Yuan-lu (c.1849-1931) settled in the caves of Dunhuang and declared himself the abbot of the monastery. Circa 1900. he accidentally found in the northern wall of the passage to cave No. 17 a small door leading to a walled-up room (2.6 by 2.6 m, 3 m high), filled with manuscripts and woodcuts, both intact and fragmented, the number of which reached forty thousand, as well as paintings on paper and fine silk, fabrics and other materials. embroidery, about ten thousand in number. The oldest text refers to 405, the latest-to 1002, apparently, the treasury was walled up in the last years of the existence of the state of the Cao clan in the face of the impending Tangut threat. The vast majority of texts are written in Chinese, there are also monuments in Tibetan, Sanskrit, Khotan, Sughd, Uyghur, and Kuchar. As for the content, Buddhist works come first, but there are also texts related to the Taoist religion and philosophy, Confucianism, as well as Manichaeism and Nestorianism, fiction, historical and geographical treatises, economic documents, almost all of which are unique. The discovery of Dunhuang manuscripts is often called the greatest discovery in Oriental studies of the XX century, and the collection itself has no equal in its value for studying the history and culture of the East and is the object of a separate scientific discipline, Dunhuang Studies( Dunhuangxue

The merchant family of Cao Yi-jin, who came to rule in Dunhuang (for more details, see [Rong Xinjiang, 1996]). However, oddly enough, all these turbulent events, as we will see below, almost did not affect the style of paintings and sculptures of Mogao caves, which continued to develop and build quite actively, although at a lower pace than before. Apparently, the fact that Dunhuang was inhabited mainly by Chinese people played a role, and it was the carriers of the Tang art tradition who were cave builders and artists. Unfortunately, the data we have about the time of cave creation comes from Chinese sources, and therefore we cannot indicate the number of caves created during the Tibetan period and the Zhang family period. For this reason, in the table we are forced to follow the Chinese version of the periodization of the history of the complex, linked to the rule of Chinese dynasties, which is not always justified.

6 The history of Dunhuang in the tenth and early eleventh centuries is traditionally attributed by Chinese researchers to the rule of the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) in China, which can hardly be considered successful. Since 911, the city was ruled by the Sughd clan of Cao, which, starting from the second half of the tenth century, became a de facto vassal of the Uyghur Ganzhou state. The Cao family formally recognized the suzerainty of the Song Dynasty (which in response "appointed" its representatives as governors of the Guiyi-jun district revived on paper), but the central Chinese government had no real control over the region. In 1036, Dunhuang became part of the Tangut state of Xi Xia (1032-1227).

7 Among the caves of the Tangut period, several caves are considered to have been developed by the Uyghurs, who controlled the Turfan and Beshbalyk regions (Kocho State (866-1206)).

8 The monastery was probably abandoned long before the end of Yuan rule, at the end of the 13th century, when the region became a theater of fierce military operations between the central Yuan government and the grandson of the great khan Ogedei (1229-1241) Kaidu, who in 1266 created his own state in East Turkestan, which successfully fought with its neighbors until the death of its founder in 1301, after which it soon broke up. The Dunhuang region was not Islamized, but after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368, the Ming Dynasty that succeeded it soon adopted a policy of isolationism, trade along the Silk Road declined greatly, and Dunhuang declined for a long time, becoming a small town on the western edge of the empire and the Buddhist world: the existence of a huge monastery in such conditions was hardly possible.

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Hearing about the discovery, Western researchers began to strive for Dunhuang, who at that time were actively engaged in exploring the interior of Asia, hitherto almost unknown in the West. In 1907, the Second Central Asian expedition of Mark Aurel Stein (1862-1943), an English scientist born to Hungarian Jewish parents, reached the caves. He examined the books, and after donating 200 taels of silver to Wang (about 7.5 kg of silver, at that time a camel was worth about 50 taels) for the monastery's construction, he was allowed to take 24 boxes of books and documents, as well as 5 boxes of embroidery. Since Stein did not read Chinese, it later turned out that among the books he selected were, among other things, several hundred copies of the Diamond Sutra, including the world's oldest woodcut, printed in 868. 9
In 1908, the French orientalist Paul Pelliot (1878-1945) visited Dunhuang. Thanks to his excellent knowledge of Chinese, Pellio managed not only to quickly establish a good relationship with Wang Yuan-lu, but also to carefully select documents. Pellio spent about three weeks in the cave where the manuscripts were kept, sometimes going through a thousand texts a day, and eventually selected about five thousand documents, which Wang agreed to give him for a donation of 600 liang. The collection of Paul Pelliot is kept in the French National Library (in total, the French Dunhuang fund has about 10 thousand units). Pellio paid particular attention to documents relating to the history and economy of the monastery and the region. Usually these are palimpsests, on the reverse side of which Buddhist texts were recorded, which, in fact, were subject to storage in a walled-up treasury.10
Returning to France, Pelliot stopped in Beijing in 1909, where he showed some Dunhuang manuscripts to Chinese scholars he knew. Immediately realizing the value of the find, they turned to the government with a request to arrange the delivery of documents to the capital. This was entrusted to an official of the provincial government of Gansu, He Yan-sheng, in 1910. He came to Dunhuang and selected about ten thousand Chinese manuscripts (it is possible that Wang hid part of the collection so as not to lose a source of income), some of which disappeared during transportation, and others ended up in the collections of He Yan-sheng himself and his friends and relatives, as a result, only 8757 documents got into the Capital's Library. Some of the documents sold to private collections were bought up by Japanese collectors, while others were collected by the Chinese government and placed in the Nanjing Central Library. Currently, the bulk of Chinese Dunhuang manuscripts (about 10 thousand items) are kept in the Chinese State Library, and about 700 items are kept in the Liushunkou Library (Dunhuang yishu cunmu soin, 1962; 1983).

In 1911-1912, about 600 of the remaining manuscripts were purchased from Wang Yuan-lu by the Japanese expedition organized by Prince Otani Kozu (1876-1948), and they formed the basis of the Japanese Dunhuang collection (about 500 units), now stored at Kyoto University and in several private collections. In 1914, Aurel Stein visited Dunhuang once more, and for 500 liang (as you can see, the self-appointed abbot steadily raised prices, sensing the growing interest of foreigners and the government in the unexpected treasure) he purchased five more boxes (about 570 units) of manuscripts. In total, Stein's Dunhuang collection, stored in the British Museum, is about 13 thousand units.

In 1914, the Mogao caves were visited by a Russian Turkestan expedition led by Academician Sergei Fyodorovich Oldenburg (1863-1934), who conducted a topographical survey of the area.

9 For information on Stein's expeditions and collections, see [Stein, 1921; 1980; Stein, 1921; Stein, 1928; 1981; Stein et al, 1948; Waley, 1931].

10 For the Pelliot expedition, see Grottes de Touen Houang..., 1980-1992; Pelliot, 1920-1924; Tissus de Touen Houang, 1970.

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I took photos and measurements of caves and acquired about 10 thousand documents. What Oldenburg brought with him formed the basis of the Dunhuang Collection, now stored in the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Now the collection, which is the largest in the world, is about 18 thousand items of storage, including, in addition to documents and works of art brought by S. F. Oldenburg in 1915, some of the documents brought by Oldenburg from the Turfan expedition of 1909-1910, part collected by the Khotan expedition of the Council of Europe. Malova, a number of documents collected in 1909-1910 by the Consul General in Urumqi N. N. Krotkov, who managed to collect some of the Dunhuang manuscripts that were distributed to local residents 11.

The early 20th century was a difficult time for the Mogao Caves. Many of the murals and sculptures were damaged by inept restoration attempts made by Wang Yuan-lu. Many paintings were taken abroad. The Oldenburg expedition acquired the paintings of Cave No. 263. In 1924, Harvard professor Langdon Warner (1881-1955), one of the prototypes of the famous Indiana Jones, removed several large Tang paintings using adhesive cloth, and also took out a number of fragments of other large panels (26 in total), which violated their integrity. In 1922, several hundred Russian White Guards lived in the Mogao caves for quite a long time, and they also caused significant damage to the complex. Finally, some of the murals were destroyed in 1940, when a major Chinese artist and art critic Zhang Da-qian (1899 - 1983), who did a lot to preserve the Dunhuang caves, in 1942 - 1944. conducted a titanic work on the drawing of all the paintings Mogao, discovered that in a number of caves there is an earlier layer of paintings, covered with later, and decided to peel off the top layer to reveal more ancient paintings.

Despite the best efforts of Chinese and European scientists, it was not until the 1940s that the Chinese government paid attention to the problem of preserving the Mogao Caves. In 1943, the caves were declared state property, the Bureau of Dunhuang Art was established (Dunhuang Yishu Yanjuso in 1951, renamed the Bureau of Dunhuang Monuments (Dunhuang Wenu Yanjuso). Systematic work began on the study and restoration of the complex, in 1963 - 1966, more than 400 caves were strengthened, the mountain slope was reinforced, stairs and paths for visitors were laid, in 1966, the area around the complex with an area of about 10 square kilometers was declared a protected area. In 1963-1966 and 1979-1980, archaeological excavations were carried out on the territory in front of the complex, as well as in a number of caves, where remains of buildings, objects and manuscripts were found. In 1984, the Bureau of Dunhuang Monuments was renamed the Dunhuang Research Institute (Dunhuang Yanjuyuan). Its staff, research and restoration methods, and budget are steadily increasing, which makes it possible to hope that, despite the growing flow of tourists, the treasures of the Mogao caves are out of danger.

Despite the fact that the export of Dunhuang murals and manuscripts by Western scholars causes understandable indignation among Chinese scholars, it must be recognized that northwestern China in the first half of the XX century was not the best place to preserve cultural monuments. Decades of civil wars and uprisings have repeatedly been able to completely destroy the complex, and the fact that its murals and statues survived this period almost without loss can be considered a rare success, which Stein and Pellio could not count on, rescuing, in their deep conviction, priceless treasures from the country engulfed in flames. By their efforts, the main

11 For the Russian Dunhuang collection, see: Menshikov, 1993; Description of Chinese Manuscripts..., 1963; 1967; E-tsang Dunhuang and shu ping, 1977-2003.

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the mass of documents found by Wang Yuan-lu was not destroyed or dispersed, but remained intact. Now the study of Dunhuang manuscripts is being successfully carried out by scientists from all over the world as part of the so-called Dunhuang Project. There is no doubt that the export of Dunhuang valuables was probably the only way to save and study them at that time, and in this case, the wounded national pride should retreat before the arguments of reason.

The number of Dunhuang caves sometimes includes two more complexes located near the city. They are much smaller than the Mogao caves in size and richness, but without any doubt, they were closely associated with them throughout their history.

The closest to the Mogao Caves, 30 km southwest of Dunhuang, are the so-called Western Thousand Buddha Caves carved into the northern steep bank of the Changhe River, 16 caves have been preserved to this day, the earliest of which belongs to the Northern Wei period, the latest - to the VIII-IX centuries. A total of 800 square meters have been preserved. m murals and 34 statues. Many murals and sculptures made at the beginning of the complex's history were later redone. The architecture of the caves, the visual style of sculptures and murals, the color and subjects fully correspond to those we have considered in the Mogao caves. However, the sculpture group located in the late cave No. 16, depicting 16 arhats (Arhat, saints of Hinayana Buddhism, who remain secretly in the world for a while in order to appear at the appointed hour and save all living beings), has no parallels in the Mogao caves.

The larger Yulin Elm Grove Cave Complex is located about 140 km east of Dunhuang, in Anxi County, China. Gansu. The caves are carved into the mountain slopes of the eastern and western banks of the Yulin River, which gave the complex its modern name (the traditional local name is the Gorge of Ten Thousand Buddhas). 41 caves have been preserved to this day, they were created in the V-XIII centuries., in 1961 they were included in the protected register of especially important cultural monuments of the PRC (see: [Ma Shizhang, 1998 (2)]).

The caves of the complex are divided into three types::

1) Caves with a central support, similar to many of the Mogao caves. All of them were carved in the first centuries of the complex's existence, but the sculpture and murals belong to later times and are the result of reconstruction.

2) Square or rectangular caves with a domed roof, also very similar to the corresponding type of caves in Dunhuang. There is almost always an altar in the middle of the room, which is somewhat different from what we see in Dunhuang, and structurally brings them closer to the caves of the first type, more traditional from the point of view of the original Buddhism, which has not yet been influenced by Chinese culture. Caves built in the 7th-11th centuries are sometimes connected by corridors with neighboring grottoes, sometimes united by a common "hallway" - a cave in which the entrance is located. Such cave systems are rarely observed in other known complexes. Caves carved in the Yuan period are usually square in plan, with an altar placed in the center, usually round or octagonal at the base.

3) Only one cave belongs to this type, N 6, which has no obvious parallels both in this complex and in others. It is a large temple-type structure, oval in plan, with a vaulted ceiling.

The paintings of the Yulin caves generally resemble those of Mogao. Like Dunhuang, the art of painting flourishes here towards the end of the Tang era, the most impressive of them (Maitreya, Western Paradise of the Pure Land, Manjushri riding on a lion, Bodhisattva Samantabhadra on an elephant, etc.), characterized by thoughtful composition, bright colors and size, were made during the reign of the Tibetans (late VIII - first half of the IX century). Paintings of the X-beginning of the XI century.-

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They are influenced by the art of an earlier time, but there are some signs of decline and second-handness in them. A very interesting image of donors, men and women, dressed in Tangut clothes, belongs to the Tangut period. Explanatory inscriptions are also made in the Tangut language. In the Yuan period, there are many subjects taken from Tantric Buddhism, as well as such subjects that are not quite typical of Chinese Buddhism, such as the mandala, a schematic representation of the universe in the form of a circle divided into different zones, with Mount Sumeru in the center.

The late Yulin cave paintings are particularly valuable because they complement the few and poorly preserved Mogao paintings from this period, when the Dunhuang monasteries came under the strong and original influence of Tibetan Buddhism.

LIST OF SOURCES

Duan Wenxie. Mogao ku (Mogao Caves) / / Zhongguo dabaike quanyiu. Meishu (Great Chinese Encyclopedia. Fine Arts). Vol. 1. Beijing, 1998.

Dunhuang bihua (Dunhuang wall paintings). Tianjin, 1956.

Dunhuang yishu huaku (Repository of Dunhuang Art). Vol. 1-12. Shanghai, 1957.

Dunhuang ishu cunmu soin (Summary Index of Lost Documents from Dunhuang). Beijing, 1962; 2nd Ed., 1983.

Dunhuang caixu (Dunhuang painted sculpture). Tianjin, 1960.

Rong Xinjiang. Guiyi-jun shi yanjiu (Study of the history of Guiyi-jun County). Shanghai, 1996.

Ma Shizhang. Dunhuang shi-ku (Dunhuang caves) / / Zhongguo dabaike quang shu. Kaogu xue (Great Chinese Encyclopedia. Archeology). Beijing, 1998 (1).

Ma Shizhang. Yulin shi-ku (Yulin Caves) / / Zhongguo dabaike quang shu. Kaogu xue (Great Chinese Encyclopedia. Archeology). Beijing, 1998 (2).

Su Mo. Dunhuang shih-ku (Dunhuang caves) / / Zhongguo dabaike quanshu. Jian-zhu, yuan-lin, cheng-shi gai-ge (Great Chinese Encyclopedia. Architecture, parks, and urban planning). Beijing-Shanghai, 1988.

Jungo shiku. Mogao ku (Chinese caves. Mogao Caves). Vol. 1-5. Peking-Tokyo, 1981-1984.

E-tsang Dunhuang i-shu ping (Monuments of Dunhuang Art in Russian collections), vol. 1-6. Shanghai, 1977-2003.

list of literature

Dmitriev S. V. Dunhuang // Spiritual culture of China. Encyclopedia, vol. 6. Architecture, calligraphy, painting, craft, music and dance, theater and cinema, Moscow, 2010.
Menshikov L. N. Dunhuanskii fond [The Dunhuang Foundation]. Issue 4. St. Petersburg, 1993.

Description of Chinese manuscripts of the Dunhuang Foundation of the Institute of Asian Peoples / Comp. by M. I. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, I. S. Gurevich, L. N. Menshikov. Issue 1. Moscow, 1963; Issue 2. Moscow, 1967.

Bannières etpeintures de Touen-Houang, conservées au Musée Guimet / Par Nicolas-Vandier avec le concours de Mmes Gaulier, Leblond et Maillard et M. Jera Bezard. P., 1974.

Bannières et peintures de Touen-Houang, conservées au Musée Guimet. Planches. P., 1976.

Basil G. Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-huang. L., 1959.

Grottes de Touen Houang, Carnet de notes de Paul Pelliot. Vol. 1 - 6. P., 1980 - 1992.

Hopkirk P. Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia. Amherst, 1980.

Pelliot P. Les Grottes de Touen Houang. Vol. 1 - 6. P., 1920 - 1924.

Stein M. A. Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China. Vol. 1 - 5. London & Oxford, 1921; ibid. Delhi, 1980 (reprint).

Stein M.A. The Thousand Buddhas: Ancient Buddhist Paintings from the Cave-Temples of Tun-huang on the Western Frontier of China. L., 1921.

Stein A. Innermost Asia: Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran. Vol. 1 -5. Oxford, 1928; ibid. New Delhi, 1981 (reprint).

Stein M.A. et al. Wall Paintings from Ancient Shrines in Central Asia. L., 1948.

Tissus de Touen Houang, conserves au musee Guimet et a la Bibliotheque nationale par K. Reboud et G. Vial avec le concours de M. Hallade. P., 1970.

Waley A. A Catalogue of Paintings Recovered from Tun-huang by Sir Aurel Stein. L., 1931.

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