A Silk Road Oasis

The oasis of Dunhuang, at the edge of the Gobi Desert, was once a bustling town on the famous Silk Road connecting China and the Mediterranean. But there was more to this verdant oasis than trade. For more than 1,000 years, Dunhuang was also an important pilgrimage site, a cultural melting pot where ideas, technologies and art flowed freely. People from many cultures lived, travelled through, worked and worshipped here.

In the remarkable Buddhist cave complex just outside Dunhuang, a …