Apsara

Mogao was a center of Buddhist worship for a thousand years. It lies just southeast of Dunhuang, a bustling oasis of trade and pilgrimage on the Silk Road. By the end of the Tang dynasty nearly 500 splendid cave temples were carved into a cliff face and filled with exquisite statues and wall murals spanning a thousand years of Buddhist art. This painting of a celestial being, from Cave 158, is one of many artist renditions of the Mogao cave murals that are based on photographs taken during World War II by James C. M. Lo (1902–1987) and his wife, Lucy. Some of the reproductions were exhibited at the 1964–65 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York. They reflect James and Lucy’s aesthetic sensibilities and their remarkable commitment to preserve knowledge of Dunhuang’s ancient past through acts of reproduction.