Other Artifacts

Delicate paper flowers, cut, painted, and layered like small rosettes, survived for roughly a millennium after being sealed inside a cave on China’s Silk Road. The discovery is a reminder that “fragile” materials can sometimes outlast stone, provided the environment is right and the objects are left undisturbed for centuries. These remarkable survivals come from the Mogao Caves (also called the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas) near the oasis town of Dunhuang in today’s Gansu province. The caves are famous for Buddhist wall paintings and sculpture spanning around a thousand years, but the paper flowers show a quieter side of devotion - everyday ritual craft executed with astonishing care explains a This is Colossal article. The Mogao Grottoes in China