Chang Jiahuang started opening modern caves not far from the Mogao Grottoes, in accordance with his father Chang Shuhong's will. 

In ancient times when creating murals on the walls in the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu province, artists depicted not only stories and images from Buddhist classics, but also of the caves' financial backers, the likes of which can be seen on the passage walls of caves 9, 61, 130 and 196.

Fifty-nine kilometers from the Mogao Grottoes and 3 kilometers from the Western Thousand-Buddha Cave, those living today are given the chance to have their likeness portrayed on the walls of Dunhuang Modern Grottoes.

Two years after Chang Shuhong, founder of Dunhuang Academy, died in 1994, his wife Li Chengxian and his son Chang Jiahuang started opening modern caves not far from the Mogao Grottoes, in accordance with the father's will. In doing so they used money they had saved and collected over the years.

Chang Jiahuang even sold some of his paintings to invest in the caves. His mother died of cancer in 2003 and left a tidy sum of money to him to open more caves.

For two decades Chang has poured millions of yuan into the caves, in the face of a great deal of skepticism from many people who question his motives. He quit his highly paid job in Japan and his wife divorced him, taking their two children with her.

"There have been many difficulties with the project, and they certainly haven't just been financial," Chang says.

He has been in Japan recently, and this week signed a two-year contract with an organization called Japan-China Cultural Exchange Promotion which entails both parties working on developing Cave 5 of Dunhuang Modern Grottoes. As usual, Chang says, he will foot the cost of design and construction.

Restoration

His elder sister and his son's objections to the work have dented his morale, he says.

Chang Shana, his sister is a former president of the Central Academy of Art and Design in Beijing. In a previous interview, she said she disagreed with the idea. She once visited the modern caves and found they were built on a "precipitous cliff whose natural conditions are unsuitable for caves". In addition, "the contents of the modern caves murals are incoherent", she says.

The cliff is 30 meters above Danghe River. Each year, water drawn from the reservoir slams against the foot of the cliff.

Three kilometers away, the river flow constantly shakes the Western Thousand-Buddha Cave. There are said to have originally been more than 2,000 caves, but the vibration has, over time, reduced them to less than 20.

In July 2008 a part of the modern caves collapsed, and a mural in Cave 1, painted by Chang Jiahuang's mother Li Chengxian, was stolen as the result of a passage that the collapse opened up.

"Police in Dunhuang helped retrieve the painting after 17 days' investigation," Chang says.

He chose the location because almost all the good spots are included in the Mogao Grottoes protection area, an idea his parents came up with.

In a transcription of a conversation between Chang and his son that the father provided, the son said he had never thought it was his father who paid for the project, rather than the project paying him.

Chang Jiahuang has opened 20 caves over the years, and several years ago media quoted him as saying that if the project made no progress he would abandon it and seal the caves with two trucks of concrete.

The plan for Cave 1 is for it to hold facsimiles of precious works from the Mogao Grottoes that were looted and taken overseas. In Cave 2 the aim is to restore facsimiles of the best works from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) to their original colors.

"Artists from all over the world are welcome to create works in two themes: environmental protection and peace," he says.