Mogao Grottoes are a system of Buddhist grottoes temples near the city of Dunhuang in the Gansu Province. It is situated at a strategic point along the Silk Route, at the crossroads of trade as well as religious, cultural and intellectual influences. It was a center of culture on the Silk Road from the 4th to the 14th centuries.

There are 492 grottoes of Buddhist art in Mogao Grottoes, which are famous for their statues and wall paintings. The Mogao Grottoes contain priceless paintings, sculptures, some 50,000 Buddhist scriptures, historical

documents, textiles, and other relics that first stunned the world in the early 1900s.

With 492 painted grottoes, the Mogao Grottoes have more than eight times as many grottoes as those at India's primary two sites. That said, the Mogao Grottoes should not be seen as an isolated endeavor within China. They are merely the best example of an astonishingly widespread Buddhist grotto movement in this nation.

According to local legend, in 366 AD a Buddhist monk, Le Zun, had a vision of a thousand Buddhas and inspired the excavation of the grottoes he envisioned. The number of temples eventually grew to more than a thousand.
As Buddhist monks valued simplicity in life, they sought retreat in remote grottoes to further their quest for enlightenment. From the 4th until the 14th century, Buddhist monks at Dunhuang collected scriptures from the west while many pilgrims passing through the area painted murals inside the grottoes. The grotto paintings and architecture served as aids to meditation, as visual representations of the quest for enlightenment and as teaching tools to inform illiterate Chinese about Buddhist beliefs and stories.

The first Mogao grottoes were carved out and decorated by Buddhist monks during the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Northern Wei grottoes tend to be small in size and supported in the center by a large sculptured column, around which monks performed walking meditations. The murals in the Northern Wei grottoes show a great deal of foreign influence. A more distinctive Chinese style emerged at the end of the Northern Wei period, around the mid-6th

Centry.The Sui dynasty was short-lived but artistically productive. There was a boom in Buddhism and Buddhist art in this period, and more than 70 grottoes were carved out at Mogao in its four decades. The art in the grottoes of this period show a marked decrease in Western influences.
In Tang Dynasty, the art of the Mogao Grottoes reached its peak. Subjects drew on both past traditions and real life. The layout of a typical Tang grotto temple consists of a square floor, tapering roof and niche for worship set into the back wall. The statuary now includes warriors and all figures are carefully detailed. The Tang caves are famed for their Buddhas, which come in some astonishing sizes. Tang murals range from huge paintings depicting scenes from the sutras to vivid portraits of individuals.
Artwork at the Mogao Caves under the Five Dynasties, Song Dynasty and Western Xia Dynasty (906-1227) mainly consist of restoration of existing murals. Work under the Song Dynasty is notable for a heavy richness of color and figures displaying the features of minority races.
During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368), the standard niche in the back wall was replaced by a central altar, creating uncluttered space for frescoes. Tibetan-style figures were introduced and mandalas were among the mural subjects.
Mogao Grottoes are a miracle in the art history of human beings. It was listed as the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1987.