Seated Buddha, from Longmen Grotto Institute. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Great Art of Dunhuang, a bombshell themed exhibition that ran from August 2022 to February at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, created quite a stir among museum goers for re-creating the magnificence of Dunhuang and its timeless treasures. It thereafter was listed among the top 10 art exhibitions of 2022 by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The curatorial team of the Dunhuang exhibition has expanded their vision and research to the eastern stretch of the ancient Silk Road, and will share their findings with the audience at Echoes of Camel Bells, to be unveiled at the same venue on Jan 13 and running for six months.

Gold Mask, from Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture Museum. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The exhibition will gather more than 400 artifacts in evidence of the thriving cultures and arts along the Silk Road throughout centuries, and especially, show the brilliance of seven grottoes of repute to include the Kizil in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Yungang in Shanxi province and the Maiji Mountains in Gansu province.

The preparations took the curatorial team to visit 35 cities across the country and survey on thousands of objects at museums nationwide.