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}} |other_name = |settlement_type=County-level city |image_skyline =Mondsichelsee-03.JPG |image_size = 300px |image_caption =Dunhuang |image_flag = |image_seal = |image_map = Location of Dunhuang within Gansu (China).png |map_caption = Dunhuang City (red) in Jiuquan City (yellow) and Gansu |pushpin_map=Qinghai |pushpin_label_position = |pushpin_map_caption = Location relative to Qinghai |pushpin_map_size = |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_name =People's Republic of China |subdivision_type1=Province |subdivision_name1=Gansu |subdivision_type2=Prefecture-level city |subdivision_name2=Jiuquan |subdivision_type3= |subdivision_name3= |leader_title = |leader_name = |established_title = |established_date = |area_magnitude = |area_total_km2 = |area_land_km2 = |area_water_km2 = |population_as_of =2000 |population_note = |population_total =187578 |population_metro = |population_density_km2 =auto |timezone = CST |utc_offset = +8 |coordinates_region =CN-62 |coordinates_type = type:city(100,000) |coordinates_display = inline,title |latd= 40 |latm= 09 |latNS=N |longd=94 |longm=40 |longEW=E |elevation_m = 1142 |postal_code = |area_code = |blank_name = |blank_info = |website = |footnotes = }} Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. The 2000 Chinese census reported a population of 187,578 in this city. Dunhuang was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and is best known for the nearby Mogao Caves. It has also been known at times as Shazhou〔Cable and French (1943), p. 41.〕 and, in Uyghur, Dukhan.〔Skrine (1926), p. 117.〕 Dunhuang is situated in a rich oasis containing Crescent Lake and Mingsha Shan (鸣沙山, meaning "Singing-Sand Mountain"), named after the sound of the wind whipping off the dunes, the singing sand phenomenon. Dunhuang commands a strategic position at the crossroads of the ancient Southern Silk Route and the main road leading from India via Lhasa to Mongolia and Southern Siberia,〔 as well as controlling the entrance to the narrow Hexi Corridor, which led straight to the heart of the north Chinese plains and the ancient capitals of Chang'an (today known as Xi'an) and Luoyang.〔Lovell (2006), pp. 74-75.〕 Administratively, the county-level city of Dunhuang is part of the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan. ==History== There is evidence of human habitation in the Dunhuang area as early as 2,000 BC, possibly by people recorded as the Qiang in Chinese history. Its name was also mentioned as part of the homeland of the Yuezhi in the ''Records of the Grand Historian'', although some have argued that this may refer to an unrelated toponym, Dunhong. By the third century BC, the area became dominated by the Xiongnu, but came under Chinese rule during the Han Dynasty after Emperor Wu defeated the Xiongnu in 121 BC. Dunhuang was one of the four frontier garrison towns (along with Jiuquan, Zhangye and Wuwei) established by the Emperor Wu after the defeat of Xiongnu, and the Chinese built fortifications at Dunhuang and sent settlers there. The name Dunhuang, meaning "Blazing Beacon", refers to the beacons lit to warn of attacks by marauding nomadic tribes. Dunhuang Commandery was probably established shortly after 104 BC.〔Hulsewé, A. F. P. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. Brill, Leiden. pp.75-76 ISBN 90-04-05884-2〕 Located in the western end of the Hexi Corridor near the historic junction of the Northern and Southern Silk Roads, Dunhuang was a town of military importance.〔Hill (2015), Vol. I, pp. 137-140.〕 "The Great Wall was extended to Dunhuang, and a line of fortified beacon towers stretched westwards into the desert. By the second century AD Dunhuang had a population of more than 76,000 and was a key supply base for caravans that passed through the city: those setting out for the arduous trek across the desert loaded up with water and food supplies, and others arriving from the west gratefully looked upon the mirage-like sight of Dunhuang's walls, which signified safety and comfort. Dunhuang prospered on the heavy flow of traffic. The first Buddhist caves in the Dunhuang area were hewn in 353."〔Bonavia (2004), p. 162.〕 Dunhuang lay on the Southern Silk Road, and it was the final stop along this route for Chinese merchants from the East where they could trade with merchants from the West who had travelled across the desert in caravans. In later centuries, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was a major point of communication between ancient China and Central Asia and a major hub of commerce of the Silk Road. From the West also came early Buddhist monks who had arrived in China by the first century AD, and a sizable Buddhist community eventually developed in Dunhuang. The caves carved out by the monks, originally used for meditation, developed into a place of worship and pilgrimage called the Mogao Caves or "''Caves of a Thousand Buddhas.''"〔The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, by Frances Wood〕 A number of Christian, Jewish, and Manichaean artifacts have also been found in the caves (see for example Jesus Sutras), testimony to the wide variety of people who made their way along the Silk Road. During the time of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Li Gao established the Western Liang here in 400 AD. In 405 the capital of the Western Liang was moved from Dunhuang to Jiuquan. In 421 the Western Liang was conquered by the Northern Liang. As a frontier town, Dunhuang was fought over and occupied at various times by non-Han Chinese people. After the fall of Han Dynasty it was under the rule of various nomadic tribes such as the Xiongnu during Northern Liang and the Turkic Tuoba during Northern Wei. The Tibetans occupied Dunhuang when the Tang empire became weakened considerably after the An Lushan Rebellion; and even though it was later returned to Tang rule, it was under quasi-autonomous rule by the local general Zhang Yichao who expelled the Tibetans in 848. After the fall of Tang, Zhang's family formed the Kingdom of Golden Mountain in 910,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Dunhuang Studies - Chronology and History )〕 but in 911 it came under the influence of the Uighurs. The Zhangs were succeeded by the Cao family who formed alliances with the Uighurs and the Kingdom of Khotan. During the Song Dynasty, Dunhuang fell outside the Chinese borders. In 1036 the Tanguts who founded the Xi Xia Dynasty captured Dunhuang.〔 Dunhuang was conquered in 1227 by the Mongols who sacked and destroyed the town, and the rebuilt town became part of China again when Kublai Khan conquered the rest of China. Dunhuang went into a steep decline after the Chinese trade with the outside world became dominated by Southern sea-routes, and the Silk Road was officially abandoned during the Ming Dynasty. It was occupied again by the Tibetans c. 1516, and also came under the influence of the Chagatai Khanate in the early sixteenth century.〔 It retaken by China two centuries later c. 1715 during the Qing Dynasty, and the present-day city of Dunhuang was established east of the ruined old city in 1725. Today, the site is an important tourist attraction and the subject of an ongoing archaeological project. A large number of manuscripts and artifacts retrieved at Dunhuang have been digitized and made publicly available via the International Dunhuang Project.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The International Dunhuang Project )〕 The expansion of the Kumtag Desert, which is resulting from long-standing overgrazing of surrounding lands, has reached the edges of the city. In 2011 satellite images showing huge structures in the desert near Dunhuang surfaced online and caused a brief media stir. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dunhuang」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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