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| 0319 |
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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CHAPTER XII
THE CAVE SHRINES OF THE THOUSAND BUDDHAS
When in the years immediately following my first Central-
Asian expedition I was planning the second, it was my eager
wish to extend it into Kansu, that north-western frontier
province of China. This wish was prompted largely by what
my friend the late Professor de Lóczy, the distinguished head
of the Hungarian Geological Survey, had told me of the
sacred Buddhist grottoes situated to the south-east of Tun-
huang and known as Ch'ien-fo-tung, the 'Caves of the
Thousand Buddhas'. As a member of Count Széchenyi's
expedition and thus a pioneer of modern geographical
exploration in Kansu, he had visited them as early as 1879.
Without being himself an antiquarian student, he had rightly
recognized the artistic and archaeological interest of the
fine fresco paintings and stucco sculptures which he had
seen there, and the glowing description he gave of them had
greatly impressed me.
I found my expectations fully realized when within a few
days after my arrival at the Tun-huang oasis in March 1907
I paid my first visit to the sacred caves. They are carved
into the precipitous conglomerate cliffs overlooking from
the west the mouth of a barren valley some twelve miles to
the south-east of the oasis. A small stream descending from
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