Almsgivers' Figures: Almsgivers refer to those who believe in Buddhism and financed the building of grottoes. To show their sincere belief in Buddhism and make the following generations know them, they painted themselves, their family members and servants inside the grottoes when building the grottoes.

Decorative Painting: Rich and colorful decorative paintings are mainly used to decorate the construction of grottoes, and desk covers, clothes and containers. The pattern changed with time, revealing outstanding painting skills and the rich imagination of the artists. The patterns mainly include sunken panels, rafters, and edge decorations.

Story Painting: To attract more and more people and spread Buddhism with great effort, it is necessary to transmit the abstract and profound Buddhist sutra to ordinary people in simple words and vivid forms. Therefore plenty of story paintings were painted in grottoes, and the stories are charming, full of rich content and moving plots.

There are also various murals on buildings, containers, flowers, birds and animals. The Dunhuang Murals systematically reflect the changes and art exchange history between China and western countries.

  The mysteries of the Dunhuang murals

Who drew the large-scale murals in Dunhuang? Were they painters from China, India, or Persia? How did they manage to draw on the walls year after year in the dim caves?

Research shows that only the painters in the 10th century kept some sporadic records, but there is hardly any information about the artists of the frescoes from the fourth to the ninth century. Altogether, there are a little more than 40 pieces of information about the painters, among them only 12 had names of the artists.

In the No. Three Cave of Dunhuang, there is a very exquisite Buddha painting created in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) with a thousand hands and eyes. The painting, which is widely considered as the best in Dunhuang, is inscribed with 'By Shi Xiaoyu from Ganzhou'. Experts believe Shi Xiaoyu was from today's Zhangye in Gansu Province, and his name was probably pseudonym, but there is no way to know about his life.

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