Dunhuang Manuscripts and Silk Road Cultural Exchange

Name: Dunhuang Manuscripts and Silk Road Cultural Exchange
Start: 701
End: 800

Type Event Region Northwest China Time 701–800

In the 8th century, Dunhuang, a key Silk Road hub, saw Mogao Caves and Dunhuang city amass multilingual manuscripts in Chinese, Tibetan, Sogdian, and…

Timeline

701–800Mogao Caves · Hexi CorridorDunhuang temples and devotees copied Buddhist scriptures in large quantities; manuscripts spread eastward to the Central Plains and westward to Central Asia along the Silk Road. A considerable portion of the manuscripts in the Mogao Caves library cave dates to the 8th century, reflecting the flourishing of Buddhism in the Hexi Corridor.
781–800Dunhuang · Hexi CorridorAfter the Tang and Tibetan Empire contested the Hexi Corridor, Dunhuang manuscripts came to include Chinese-Tibetan bilingual documents, Tibetan government edicts, and Sogdian caravan contracts, vividly recording the convergence of multiple ethnicities, religions, and languages along the Silk Road.

Sources

敦煌学导论 — 荣新江 (2015)
Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim — Sam van Schaik (2012)