Brief / profile
The Western Thousand-Buddha Cave is regard as Dunhuang Buddist art. With a small scale, it enjoys beautiful scenery and tranquil environment.

Location
It lies on the Dang River, to the west of Mogao Caves and 35 km from southwest of Dunhuang City, Gansu Province.
Construction
The Thousand Buddhist Cave has 16 caves: cave No 1, 2 and 3 were carved in the Tang Dynasty; from the 4th cave to the 8th cave were from the late Tang Dynasty. The above ones were preserved better than others since most of them collapsed.

History
The exact ages of the caves are not clear, but it’s certain that they appeared earlier than the appearance of the Mogao Caves. This attraction also suffered a lot owing to the natural disaster and destructionfromhuman beings during its history. Recently, the government reinforced the protection of the caves here and it was listed as a key cultural relic under the state protection in 1961.