Tunhwang

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Mandarin 敦煌 (Dūnhuáng).

Proper noun

Tunhwang

1. Dated form of Dunhuang.
   • 1953, Richard J. Wash, “The Real China”, in Adventures and Discoveries of Marco Polo‎^[1], New York: Random House, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 39:

     AFTER THE thirty days' crossing of the great desert the Polos were at last in the real China. The first city was Tunhwang, in the province of Kansu. This was a place where the caravan roads met and to which pilgrims came from far and wide. For near here were the "Caves of a Thousand Buddhas." The multitude of idols of wood, stone and clay, covered with gilt, some small, some very large, some lying full length, some standing, made a deep impression on Marco's Christian mind.

   • 1956, Theodore Shabad, China's Changing Map: A Political and Economic Geography of the Chinese People's Republic‎^[2], New York: Frederick A. Praeger, page 268:

     To insure transportation for the prospecting teams, two new highways were laid. One, about 540 miles long, traverses the northern edge of the Tsaidam from east to west. It links Kansen on the Tsinghai-Sinkiang road with Chaka on the Tsinghai-Tibet road west of lake Koko Nor. The other road traverses the basin from north to south, linking Tunhwang (Kansu Province) via Mahai with Golmo, road center on the southern edge of the Tsaidam.

   • 1979, Jan Myrdal, translated by Ann Hening, The Silk Road: A Journey from the High Pamirs and Ili through Sinkiang and Kansu‎^[3], New York: Pantheon Books, page 291:

     It was the sixth day in Tunhwang. The previous evening we had completed work at the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas in Tunhwang. Or—more correctly—we had worked there for as long as we had permits. When the sun set, the week was over and with it the permit. Most of the work was still unfinished.

   • 1983 April 10, “Chang Dai-chien leaves rich legacy of Chinese art”, in 自由中國週報 [Free China Weekly]‎^[4], volume XXIV, number 14, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3, column 1:

     The imitation stage has already been described, the drawing from life came when he spent two and a half years in the caves of Tunhwang during the Second World War, and the start of the development of his own style came when he was living in Brazil 30 years ago.