Dunhuang - History

Dunhuang is an oasis town in Chinese Central Asia west of Xian - a former capital of China. To the west of Dunhuang lies the Taklamakan Desert. The Silk Road coming from the west split to follow the northern and southern borders of the desert where there were many small oases. Dunhuang was the town where the two branches of the Silk Road rejoined for the final leg into China's capital.

Located at the west end of the "hexi Corridor" in Gansu Province, Dunhuang has a glorious history and culture. Dun - means large, Huang - means prosperous. This large and prosperous ancient town is the centre of various ethnical peoples. Dun Huang's history dated back as early as 1300 B.C. in Neolithic age. In the late third century B.C. the original inhabitants of the Rouzhi tribe was forced to move westward by another stronger tribe Xiongnu. Then Dunhuang was incorporated into the domain of China, Han Dynasty in 111 B.C. From then on, Dunhuang became an important trading and cultural centre in Silk Road.

After the decay of Han central power, Dunhuang became semi-independent; in the 4^th and 5^th centuries AD, it successively formed part of kingdoms centred in Kansu. Throughout this period Tun-huang remained an important caravan town and commercial centre for trade with Central Asia.

It is important to realize that location of the main settlement and the name of the town and district changed over time. The first name mentioned Hsiao-ku is a town about 11 miles northeast of the modern Dunhuang. The author refers to Dunhuang as Sha-ch'eng or by a generic name. Although it tends to refer to a broader administrative district, Sha-chou also came to be used as an equivalent for Dunhuang. In the 6^th century, the name Kua-chou was applied and then Ming-sha hsien. Beginning in the T'ang period in the 7^th century, the name generally was either Dunhuang or Sha-chou; it was under the latter name that Marco Polo knew the city.

In 781, during the Tang dynasty (618-906), Dunhuang surrendered to the Tibetans after 10 years' resistance. When Chinese rule was restored in 848, one local family assumed power, to be followed in the tenth century by other powerful clans. Dunhuang was last considered a place of importance when it was under the control of the Western Xia kingdom (990-1227) and the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368).

From the time of the Han to the end of the Yuan, a most important trade route developed from China to the West, which later became known by the marvellously evocative name, The Silk Road. The ancient traveller leaving China along this road would pass through Dunhuang before braving the many hazards of the journey westwards through East Turkestan (present-day Xinjiang). Dunhuang has a special place in history because of its location close to the parting of the northern and southern routes that skirted the impassable Taklamakan desert.

Silk was traded along this seven thousand kilometre braid of caravan trails from China right across Asia to the eastern Roman empire on the shores of the Mediterranean and also to south Asia. Persian and Sogdian merchants travelled the whole length and were such familiar sights in the Chinese capitals Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) and Luoyang that they can frequently be found, for example portrayed on Tang dynasty figurines.

While the history of Dunhuang and its region has much in common with that in other cities in Inner Asia, part of its distinction lies in the degree to which life in Dunhuang has been documented. Much of that documentation came to the attention of scholars only at the beginning of the 20^th century, with the expeditions of Aurel Stein and others.