EAA 2022: Abstract

Based on the iconographic data of the female donor frescoes in Cave 61 of the Mogao Caves on the Digital Dunhuang Official Website, and its clothing of female donors and the sortord, this thesis attempts to highlight and discuss the differences in the costumes of different ethnic groups that have been noted in the literatures on Cave 61 . This thesis argued that the differences in costume between the different groups in Cave 61 is connects to the alliance and political strategy of Cao’s family when I combine the genealogy of the Cao’s family donors with various components of the costumes are compared with images from donors of other caves and portable painting on silk about the tenth century.

In addition, an analysis of the costume and sortord of the donors in Cave 61 not only discusses characteristics of costume culture of Dunhuang, Khotan, and Ganzhou Uighur during The Cao's Guiyijun period (914-1036), but also reveals that the sortord of donors was related to the strength of the states in regional politics at the time. The integration of the iconographic data and documentary review of Cave 61 reveals not only the differences in the dress of the donors and the cultural intermingling of the nationalities, but also the utilization of marriage by the Cao family to consolidate their local dominance and maintain regional peace and development. The cultural mixing of donor costumes in Cave 61 , therefore, confirms the multiple religious and cultural intermingling that has been repeatedly mentioned in the literature, and on the other hand, links the details and methods of cultural intermingling from a costume perspective specifically to the pattern of donor family marriages.

Cave 61 of Dunhuang Mogao Caves, Cao's Guiyijun, Donor costumes, Family alliance

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Hongdi Zhou¹