Dunhuang Daquan River | The Origin of the Mogao Buddha Caves, A Blaze in the Turpan Basin

📍 Orlando · 👁 1 reads · ❤️ 88 likes

It is an unparalleled human imprint

Also a thought-provoking gallery of a thousand cliffs...

Fifteen kilometers from the Mogao Caves, in a valley of the southern mountains, lies a place called Daquan. The springs there converge, known in the Tang Dynasty as 'Dangquan,' and later called the Daquan River. It once served as a branch of the Silk Road, connecting the southern foothills of Sanwei in Dunhuang with the western end of the Qilian Mountains.

The northwestern region beyond the cities, as everyone knows, is either vast deserts or boundless gobi. Yet besides that, there are so-called oasis paths, where shrubs thrive, water and grass are abundant, and wild fruits and game are scattered across the slopes...

No.1 Galloping Through the Gobi

The gobi desert is a landform at the edge of the desert. Following this ancient Silk Road, step into the majestic and vast gobi. Here the sky is blue, the land is vast, and the terrain is flat—truly an excellent place for off-road adventures and also a playground for goitered gazelles to frolic.

No.2 Crossing the Desert

Dunhuang is actually a city built in an oasis. Leave the urban area, and within five kilometers you'll see the boundless desert, desolate and uninhabited, where navigation fails. You can only rely on an experienced guide and a spirit of adventure to traverse this dreamlike stretch. Fortunately, along the way, a few Xiyu sand tigers and flower-backed toads keep you company.

No.3 Canyoning and Stream Tracing

After navigating through the uninhabited desert, we arrive at today's theme: the Daquan River. Normally, it is a clear stream, but during the high-water season, it swells into a wide river. Following the natural course laid out in the canyon, it flows upstream, irrigating the land of the Mogao Caves, making the banks of the Dangquan lush with tamarisk and verdant vegetation. At this point, take a moment by the river, taste the sweetest spring water in this arid oasis, and enjoy a primitive riverside picnic with the little hedgehogs.

No.1 Climbing the Cliff Walls

According to the murals in the Mogao Caves, the monk Le Zun stood on the cliff of the Daquan River valley and saw Mount Sanwei 'shooting out myriad golden rays under the setting sun, glorious and holy, incomparably wondrous,' as if revealing the silhouettes and auspicious lights of various Buddhas. So he chiseled a cave temple into the cliff beneath his feet. Through centuries of construction by successive monks, the Mogao Caves, with over a thousand grottoes, finally took shape.

When you come here and hear this story, it’s worth sitting on the cliff, finding a great angle, and meditating for a while. See if you can, as if on the scene, witness the 'boundless Buddha light' that Le Zun saw.

No.2 'Star-Chasing' Red Stone Mountain

('Fire clouds cover the mountains, condensed and unopened; birds from a thousand miles dare not come.')

Red Stone Mountain is another scenery we will pass on this trip. As its name suggests, it is intriguing for its reddish-brown rock color. What we see is a section of the Red Stone Mountain range belonging to the Turpan Basin in Xinjiang.

Red Stone Mountain is composed of red sandstone and was folded into short wrinkles during the Himalayan movement. Under the blazing sun, the reddish-brown sandstone glitters, hot air currents rise, and mist swirls, just like a raging fire.

When you come to the northwest, you will find that the inclusiveness of this place is beyond imagination. The same expanse of land, the same length of road, the same day spent—what you see and hear in the northwest is far richer than what you can experience in other regions...

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