LA museum features “The Cave Temples of Dunhuang” – full-size replicas of ancient Chinese cave paintings

World Today

The Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA, one of America’s most famous museums, will open a new exhibit that was years in the making.

“The Cave Temples of Dunhuang” features incredible full-size replicas of ancient painted caves found in China. CCTV America’s May Lee reports.

In the Northwestern province of Gansu, China lays the Dunhuang Oasis once a strategic point along the Silk Road and home to the spectacular Mogao cave temples.

Nearly 500 grottos feature Buddhist wall paintings and statues from the 4th to the 14th century.

Thanks to a long term project between Dunhuang Academy and the Getty Conservation Institute, or GCI, replicas of three Mogao caves are now in Los Angeles’ Getty Center for a special exhibit.

All the caves are exact copies of how they look now in Dunhuang with all the wear and tear from the elements, natural disasters and even archeological pillaging.