Sacred Caves: Dunhuang, Buddhism, and the Silk Road

Sacred Caves: Dunhuang, Buddhism, and the Silk Road is an exhibition exploring the ancient oasis city of Dunhuang and its role as a crossroads of Buddhist art, trade, and cultural exchange across Asia.

For over a thousand years, the oasis city of Dunhuang was one of the great crossroads of the ancient world. Travellers, merchants, monks, and pilgrims passed through this gateway linking China, Central Asia, India, and beyond, bringing with them goods and ideas that transformed the city into one of the world’s most important centres of Buddhist art.

Carved into the cliffs at the edge of the Gobi Desert between the 4th and 14th centuries, the Mogao Caves, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, preserve an extraordinary record of life in Dunhuang. Life-size reproductions of cave interiors alongside paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, and textiles, are presented in Southeast Asia for the first time, revealing the history of these sacred spaces and the exchanges that shaped the Silk Road.

Sacred Caves: Dunhuang, Buddhism, and the Silk Road

Art Calendar