Sacred Caves: Dunhuang Lands in Singapore

The Asian Civilisations Museum recreates four Mogao Caves, the great UNESCO-listed Chinese rock-cut site, and features a 13-meter reclining Buddha. An unprecedented sight in Southeast Asia, this exhibition offers a visitor-level narrative of sixteen centuries of Buddhist art along the Silk Road.

DUNHUANG (China) – On the lawn of the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), a six-meter-high inflatable structure holds its own against the surrounding trees. The figure has an angelic smile, drapery that seems to defy gravity, and the somewhat ethereal glow of a cartoon image. It is an apsara — one of those celestial creatures from the Buddhist pantheon, half-dancers, half-musicians, which texts associate with flowers and music. Where they pass, it is said, nirvana smells sweet.