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The Story of the Caves

This event took place on 4 October 2024. The information below is correct as of the publication date. Away from the bustling streets of Dunhuang lies a remarkable Buddhist site known as the Mogao Caves, a complex of hundreds of intricately decorated caves. In 1900, a Daoist priest named Wang Yuanlu made a breathtaking discovery: a small chamber containing tens of thousands of manuscripts, paintings, and artefacts dating from the 5th to 11th centuries. Known as the "Library Cave" or Cave 17, this incredible time capsule is one of the world's most significant archaeological finds, offering unparalleled insights into the Silk Roads and glimpses of both religious and secular life. A large portion of them were acquired by archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein and brought to the UK, with some becoming part of the British Library's collection. Watch our panel of experts, alongside our host Dr Sam Willis, as they delve into the story of the discovery of the Library Cave, and its extraordinary content, showcased in the current exhibition, A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang. Mélodie Doumy is Lead Curator for Chinese collections (Stein and Hoernle), with special responsibility for the International Dunhuang Programme (IDP) at the British Library. She is a key member of the curatorial team for the exhibition, A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang. Her research focuses on the history of these remarkable collections, the materiality of the Dunhuang manuscripts, and the social and religious practices associated with them. Before joining the British Library, Mélodie served as Assistant Curator for the Gilbert Collection at the V&A. Susan Whitfield is currently Professor in Silk Road Studies at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC), University of East Anglia, working on the Nara to Norwich project (NaratoNorwich.org). She has been researching, travelling, lecturing and writing about the Silk Road for over three decades, including 25 years spent as a curator at British Library. In 2004 she curated the first major exhibition on the Silk Road in the UK, 'he Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. Susan has a wide range of research interests, represented by her publications. Several of her books are widely used in both university and school teaching internationally. Dr Luk Yu-Ping is the Basil Gray Curator of Chinese Paintings, Prints, and the Central Asian Collection at the British Museum, and co-curator of their exhibition Silk Roads. She oversees the Stein collection in the Asian department. Previously, she served as the Curator of Chinese Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and was the Project Curator for the British Museum's exhibition Ming: 50 Years That Changed China. Yu-Ping also held an academic position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. She is a co-author of the new book Silk Roads (London: British Museum Press, 2024) Dr Sam Willis is one of the UK's best known historians. He has made more than ten TV multi-part series for the BBC and National Geographic which have been seen by tens of millions of people worldwide. His work continues to take him all over the world. He has travelled the Silk Road in numerous different ways: from Venice to Xi'An in The Silk Road (BBC); From Guangzhou to Athens via India and Africa in Maritime Silk Road Reborn (NatGeo) and across China by rail in The Silk Railroad (Nat Geo). This event accompanied the British Library exhibition A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang (27 September – 23 February 2025).