In the early days of Buddhism spreading eastward, many Buddhists spread Buddhism among the western businessmen along the Silk Road. Buddhist missionaries from the west stopped here to spread Buddhism, translate Buddhist scriptures, set up altars and build temples, and Buddhist practitioners from the west of the Central Plains also rested here, so Dunhuang became a prosperous place of Buddhism.

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The Mogao Grottoes are not far from the population gathering place, with steep cliffs suitable for digging caves and rivers enough for health preservation, which have the conditions for monks to practice in a "quiet place". When I swam here, I suddenly saw the golden light, which looked like a thousand buddhas, so I opened a hole to practice. Since then, the excavation of caves has lasted for thousands of years.

There are two routes for Buddhism to spread to China: one is Buddhism from the north, also known as Han Buddhism, and it enters Chang 'an and Luoyang from Afghanistan. Another Southern Buddhism, from India and Nepal to Lhasa and Tibet.

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Few people could read in ancient times, so it is very difficult to popularize an idea when most people can't read. Buddhists can only let people slowly enter the religious world through very vivid methods such as painting and sculpture. Therefore, Buddhism can firmly take root in China, which has a lot to do with art.

With the frequent exchanges between China and the West and the prevalence of cultural exchanges between the East and the West, painters and craftsmen from the Western Regions and even Central Asia and West Asia brought Buddhist painting styles and sculpture techniques. If we call this piece western culture, that is, Hu culture in Tang Dynasty, it not only changed the original track of China's artistic development, but also was well used. In this process, Afghanistan is a very important place, where craftsmen have strong modeling ability and have formed a very complete system, which was far beyond the reach of China people at that time.

The inscription of Syrian painter Rumakama in Cave 2 12 in Qizil, Xinjiang, confirms the possibility of Syrian painters going to Qiuci to create Buddhist art. In addition to the great contributions made by foreign painters from Central Asia, West Asia and even India to the formation of Buddhist art in the grottoes along the splendid Silk Road, Central Plains painters brought by officials working in Dunhuang and exiled officials who moved to the border in different periods also brought paintings with Chinese culture in the Central Plains to Dunhuang. During the reign of Tubo, Xixia and Yuan Dynasty, the minority painters who arrived here also injected new connotations into Dunhuang art..