Cave no. 17 from the Mogao cave complex at Dunhuang, Gansu province in China, was opened in 1900. Containing over 50,000 projected tons of manuscripts, booklets, scrolls, and paintings on silk hemp and paper were also satiated in it. Wang Yuanlu, a Daoist monk, discovered the cave in the early 20th century. Therefore, one can address the cause of the library cave’s sealing and its impacts on the East to West roads, commonly known as the silk roads.
Being the home of cave no. 17, Dunhuang was located at the junction of these roads, hence influencing the Silk Road networks. However, the cave had been sealed for some reasons. Arguably, the sealing of the cave was done before 1006 when Dunhuang residents heard about the fall of the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan to the Islamic defeats from Kashgar. Moreover, the individuals pursued to prevent the damage to Buddhist territories. Sir Aurel Stein and Paul Pelliot also made their proposal on the closure of the library cave. Stein argued that the cave confines holy remnants gathered from various shrines in Dunhuang from the remains collected in the cave. Since Xi Xia’s writings, messy piling up of wall coverings, paintings, documents, Buddhist statues, and steles were missing; this led to Pelliot’s conclusion that the cave was closed in 1035 as a storage chamber after Xi Xia invaded Dunhuang. All these theories behind the closure of the cave. no. 17 are valid based on the manuscripts.
Mogao caves that consisted of the library cave had tremendous impacts on the silk roads. Dunhuang city, north-west China, was situated at logistical and strategic importance, on a junction of two major trade routes within the trade routes. This enabled the expansion of trade across the trade routes since it enabled the exchange of flavors from the East Indies, ginger, silk, and furs from the wildlife of the Caucasian savannah.
Pilgrims and monks traveled along the silk roads, whereby from the scripts gathered in the cave, they were able to gain some basic knowledge of the Chinese religions, especially on Buddhism. Furthermore, several religions spread into areas along the Silk Road. Caves were painted with Buddhist imagery; thus, intense religious process, ritual fasting, and incense were witnessed across the East to West roads. Wall paintings dating back to the 5th century AD showed Buddha’s life sections, while those built after 600 AD portray Buddhist manuscripts.
Additionally, cave no. 17 had a significant impact on culture along the silk roads. Manuscripts found in the cave contained information on different cultures, which was learned and appreciated among the people moving across the silk roads. Library cave contained over 40000 scrolls of documents containing a great value in understanding the silk roads’ cultural diversity. Thus, multiculturalism became a common thing on the East-to-West routes. Moreover, skills and crafts were also exchanged on the silk roads as craftsmen and traders met and made the interchange, and some rolls from the Mogao cave had woodblock printing in Dunhuang, a procedure invented from China.
Conclusively, Mogao caves had a significant impact on the east to west roads in China. Library cave was not only of religious influence but also cultural, technical, and commercial exchange. These effects were widespread across the Silk Road networks and led to tremendous evolution in the activities carried out along the roads observed even to date. Thus, the library cave is one aspect that many historians have analyzed when focusing on Chinese culture and Buddhism.