Mogao Caves

Dunhuang flying fairy, dress floating. In the midst of the clouds, overlooking all life. Tang style girl, with willow eyebrows, and light smile. Western region girl, holding blade, eyes revealing a murderous aura. @Cai Cai, with her stunning Chinese style dress photos, has gained countless popularity among netizens. And Chinese style costume is getting more and more focus, #chinese street fashion, become the newest trending topic. JOY from Pu Xiang Design will introduce you to three ladies who are not only super fans of Chinese style dress, but also dedicated to promoting and spreading this culture.   Cai Cai Cai Cai, graduated from Tsinghua University. Out of hobby, began to costume play kinds of game characters, and easily manage different styles. Cai Cai's Dunhuang photo series has received a lot of praise, and the Dunhuang Municipal Party Committee's Publicity Department awarded her as the "Dunhuang Promotion Ambassador" in 2020. This group of "Tang women playing musical instruments" is based on the musical and dance paintings in the Mogao Caves. The Mogao Caves are the pinnacle of ancient Chinese music and dance, and the images recorded there are rich beyond imagination. In the painting, the women are either carrying ancient Konghou,…

In the Wei, Jin, and North-South Dynasties, when Buddhism was first spread, the flying immortals in the murals were once called Fei Tian (飞天, flying apsaras). With the deep development of Buddhism in China, the Buddhist flying gods and flying immortals merged with each other in artistic images. Dunhuang Fei Tian is the flying apsaras painted in the Dunhuang caves, which later became a special term for Chinese Dunhuang mural art.   01 Origin of flying apsaras In Buddhist culture, the term "Tian" not only refers to celestial abodes but also to the deities within them, such as the "Gongde Tian," which represents auspicious heavenly maidens. Within the heavenly realm, there exists a category of minor deities who flit about and attend to various matters for the apsaras. They possess exceptional singing and dancing abilities, and whenever the Buddha expounds upon his teachings, they soar through the air in graceful dances while playing music and scattering flowers. This imagery actually originated from two minor deities in Brahmanism - Gandharvas and Apsaras. The former is associated with music while the latter embodies dance. The early translators aptly rendered these minor deities as "Fei Tian," denoting their ethereal nature of soaring through…