Song For A Future Generation
That is a song sung 95 generations ago which sits atop a hill in
Brentwood under a tent at the Getty Center. If you think of the Mogao cave
paintings as songs that’s a better way of interpreting them than dull prose and
you slip easily under their spell, bizarre, fantastic, and wonderful. The ideas
behind these murals are stories from Buddhism when Buddhism entered present day
China from India through the Silk Road. The Silk Road, the internet of its day, spread not
just silk and goods and people but ideas across the globe. And consider this: the
day of the Silk Road lasted at least a thousand years.
What’s sobering is that the stories these paintings tell are
the issues of today like sympathy and understanding over ignorance. So here we
are in present day Los Angeles, so privileged to be able to experience these
marvelous works, recreated to scale, exactly as they appear in Dunhuang. And summer
nights, Friday and Saturday at the Getty Center are the best: no crowds, live
music, and the cool of the night. Failing that here’s a taste, some images, links
to videos, and the Getty site itself. I hope you will enjoy.
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| In China this is what the exterior of the caves looks like. |
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| Also in China near the caves this charming and hokey stage recreation of the paintings. |
