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The Northern Wei was a dynasty founded by the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei, who ruled northern China from 386 to 534 CE, during the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Described as 'part of an era of political turbulence and intense social and cultural change', the Northern Wei Dynasty is particularly noted for unifying northern China in 439.<br/><br/> This was also a period of introduced foreign ideas such as Buddhism, which became firmly established. Many antiques and art works, both Daoist and Buddhist, have survived from this period.
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened (bodhi) existence (sattva) or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, 'heroic-minded one (satva) for enlightenment (bodhi).' Another term is 'wisdom-being.' It is anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhicitta, which is a spontaneous wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.
The Mahasattva jataka fresco illustrates Prince Sattva offering himself to a starving tigress and her cubs.<br/><br/> The jataka starts from the top centre with Prince Sattva and his two brothers looking down at the tigress and her seven cubs. The story continues on the right. The prince kneels and pierces his neck with a bamboo stick, and then dives with an outstretched left arm from the cliff to feed the tigress. Then his remains are found by his saddened family.<br/><br/> The Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes (Chinese: mògāo kū, also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and Dunhuang Caves) form a system of 492 temples 25 km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China.<br/><br/> The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in 366 AD as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The caves also have celebrated wall paintings
Lacquer painting on wood from Datong dated to the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534). The bottom panel illustrates the story of Lady Ban from the ‘Admonitions of the Court Instructress’ to palace women.
The Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes (Chinese: Mògāo kū) (also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and Dunhuang Caves) form a system of 492 temples 25 km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China.<br/><br/> The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out 366 CE as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The caves also have famous wall paintings.
The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of central Asia. It is presently restricted in the wild to remote regions of the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts of Mongolia and Xinjiang.<br/><br/> There are a small number of wild Bactrian camels still roaming the Mangystau Province of South West Kazakhstan. It is one of the two surviving species of camel. The Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped Dromedary camel.<br/><br/> Camels were widely used in the Silk Road trade across the deserts of Central Asia.