The sacred oasis
Subtitle: caves of the thousand Buddhas, Tun Huang
By: With a pref. by Pearl Buck
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1953
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 114
Subjects: Grotten; Mural painting and decoration; Decoration and ornament; Buddhist art; Boeddhistische kunst
Description: The thousand Buddha caves of Kansu, often called the Tun Huang Caves after the nearest oasis city, form a fabulous gallery of Chinese art. The first cave chapel was, according to tradition, excavated there in the fourth century A.D. For 1,000 years there was more or less continuous excavating and painting. Restoration and redecoration were carried on until quite recent times. Traces the artistic influences--Indian, Persian, Greco-Roman, and Central Asian--which, abssorbed and transformed by the Chinese, formed the sculptures and wall-paintins of the caves.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 111-112).