Dunhuang
A desert oasis city in Gansu, China, at the gateway between arid western regions and the Chinese heartland, anchoring the Hexi Corridor.
Hexi Corridor: A 1,000-km corridor between the Qilian Mountains and the Gobi, the only low-altitude route from central China to the Tarim Basin. Dunhuang sits at the corridor's western end, guarding the exit toward the deserts beyond.
Mogao Caves: Nearly 500 Buddhist cave temples cut into a cliff near Dunhuang from 366 CE onward, with murals and sculptures across a thousand years. Dunhuang's fame rests on this cliffside complex, begun by the monk Yuezun.
Emperor Wu of Han: Han emperor (r. 141–87 BCE) who pushed Chinese control into the Hexi Corridor and Central Asia. His campaigns created the commandery; Dunhuang was founded as a Han outpost under him.
Xuanzang: Tang monk who crossed Central Asia to India (629–645) and returned with Sanskrit scriptures. His illegal westward exit passed through this region; murals at Dunhuang celebrate his journey.
Dunhuang studies: The international scholarly field built on the Mogao caves and the dispersed manuscript corpus. A supply town's accident of a sealed cave generated an entire academic discipline.
Jade Gate Pass: Han dynasty frontier gate northwest of Dunhuang, the official exit point for caravans leaving China proper. Traffic through Dunhuang was channeled and taxed at this nearby gate.
Library Cave: Cave 17 at Mogao, sealed around the 11th century and reopened in 1900 holding tens of thousands of manuscripts. The hidden repository that made Dunhuang a documentary as well as artistic treasury.
Battle of Mobei: A 119 BCE Han campaign deep into the steppe that broke Xiongnu dominance in the north. The victory that let Han garrisons move west and hold the corridor Dunhuang anchors.
Wang Yuanlu: Taoist caretaker who discovered the Library Cave in 1900 and sold manuscripts to foreign expeditions. His sales moved the collection to London and Paris, still the subject of dispute.
International Dunhuang Project: A collaboration digitizing and cataloguing the manuscripts held in London, Paris, Beijing and elsewhere. The reunion-in-digital-form response to the collection's scattering.