Constructed over a millennium from the fourth to fourteenth centuries CE near Dunhuang, an ancient border town along the Silk Road in northwest China, the Mogao Caves comprise the largest, most continuously created, and best-preserved treasure trove of Buddhist art in the world. Previous overviews of the art of Dunhuang have traced the caves' unilinear history. This book examines the caves from the perspective of space, treating them as physical and historical sites that can be approached, entered, and understood sensually. It prioritizes the actual experiences of the people of the past who built and used the caves.

Five spatial contexts provide rich material for analysis: Dunhuang as a multicultural historic place; the Mogao Cave complex as an evolving entity; the interior space of caves; interaction of the visual program with architectural space; and pictorial space within wall paintings that draws viewers into an otherworldly time. With its novel approach to this repository of religious art, Spatial Dunhuang will be a must-read for anyone interested in Buddhist art and for visitors to Dunhuang.

A path-breaking new study of a celebrated site of Buddhist art

About the Author

Wu Hung is Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Chinese Art History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of fifteen books and anthologies, including A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture and Contemporary Chinese Art: A History, 1970s-2000s.

Reviews

"In Spatial Dunhuang, the temporal and spatial lines have been so well organized that it is still accessible to those unfamiliar with Dunhuang and/or Chinese art despite the fact that more than 20 caves are discussed in considerable detail. For specialists, some of the issues raised in this book may stimulate further academic studies such as the interrelationship between ideas of the afterlife and rituals in Dunhuang with the religious practices at Mogao. At the same time, nearby cave sites such as the Yulin Caves and the Western Caves of a Thousand Buddhas can be taken into consideration in a bigger spatial picture."

* Asian Studies Review *

"With a seamless blend of insights from religion, art history, literature, and archaeology, Wu Hung's latest contribution, Spatial Dunhuang: Experiencing the Mogao Caves, stands as a pioneering scholarly endeavor. . . Overall, this richly illustrated book transforms the foundational approach of Dunhuang studies by pivoting toward the significance of space within the Mogao Caves. It caters not only to academic audiences but also to broader readerships."

* H-Net Reviews *



Book Information
ISBN 9780295750200
Author Wu Hung
Format Hardback
Page Count 392
Imprint University of Washington Press
Publisher University of Washington Press
Weight(grams) 1315g