What is the painting method of Dunhuang murals, and what is the significance of the preservation of Dunhuang murals?

Most of the murals in Dunhuang are Buddhist, whose significance lies in reflecting the lives and thoughts of ancient people and laying a solid foundation for our country to understand Dunhuang culture. As one of the four largest grottoes in China, Dunhuang Grottoes are famous for their murals. Moreover, from the Sixteen Kingdoms period to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Dunhuang experienced many dynasties, and each dynasty built grottoes here in Dunhuang and painted various murals with unique characteristics of the times. Therefore, Dunhuang murals can be said to be quite large in scale. It is the most complete and largest art treasure house in the world.

Because Dunhuang was once one of the fortresses of the Silk Road, it had both eastern and western cultures. Later, Buddhism was introduced into the Central Plains along the Silk Road and passed through Dunhuang, so Dunhuang formed its own unique culture, which can be seen from the most famous flying sky in Dunhuang murals. Because of this premise, most of these murals in Dunhuang are Buddhist, and they usually tell stories with Buddhist classics.

The main part of the mural is a variety of Buddha paintings, such as III Buddha and Sakyamuni. Such as Bodhisattva, Manjusri, Pu Xian, and Tianlong Babu, such as Goruda. Then, the people who draw these paintings, because they are loyal Buddhists, will paint themselves and their families on them. Then there are some decorations around, which are used for decoration. Finally, some mountains and rivers will be depicted, especially landscape paintings.

However, most of them are story paintings, which are also divided into many parts, namely, Buddhist story paintings, Bunsen paintings, karma story paintings, Buddhist historical story paintings, concrete story paintings and Tang Xuanzang story paintings. In addition to these Buddhist stories, there are also story paintings of local historical figures. Dunhuang murals are of great significance to us. These murals in Dunhuang are cultural relics themselves, and they play a very important role in understanding and exploring Dunhuang culture in China.