Topics in EALC: Dunhuang and the Silk Road

Dunhuang, a key oasis town on the cultural and economic networks of ancient Eurasia known today as the “Silk Roads,” lay for centuries at the nexus of four major cultural spheres: those of China, Tibet, Central Asia, and the Steppe. Dunhuang is renowned especially for its connection with the Mogao Caves, a major Buddhist temple and pilgrimage site. Its immense importance today lies in the fact that it is not only the most important collection of Buddhist painting in the ancient world, but that it also held a cache of manuscripts and block-printed texts that has transformed our understanding of the history of the region, and especially of the histories of Buddhism, Daoism, Manichaeism, and Christianity. Dunhuang’s location at the nexus of cultural spheres is reflected in the astonishing range of languages attested at the site, in manuscripts, epigraphy, and graffiti. These include Chinese, Tibetan, Khotanese, Sogdian, Old Uyghur, Old Türkic, Sanskrit, Tangut, and Kuchean, among others. This course is an exploration of the rich history of Dunhuang and the Mogao Caves: not only the ancient histories reflected in its art, objects, and texts, but also the modern histories of those materials, which are today in good part scattered across the globe in museum and library collections filled by agents of 20th Century empires.