Article: Buddha’s Caves

The article on Buddha’s Caves in today's New York Times by Holland Cotter brought to mind another article on Creeping black mold that is presently attacking Stone Age art, here

The Budda's Cave article shows that, on the lip of the Gobi Desert, sand and tourists threaten Mogaoku’s singular art. There is also a Slideshow of The Caves of Dunhuang that includes wonderful images like an array of painted sculpture in a cave. The earliest examples of caves, small and plain, were used for shelter and meditation, occasionally for burials. By the early fifth century, however, larger grottoes were excavated as temples and monastic lecture halls. Many had chapel-like niches and freestanding altars, all cut from stone. The interiors were sculpted with architectural features as if to simulate buildings. Painting covered everything. Murals illustrating tales from the Buddha's past lives, were popular, as were images of court fetes. Rock ceilings were covered with fields of decorative patterning to evoke an illusion of fabric pavilions. Any leftover space was filled with figures of tiny deities.