The Lady of the Governor's Ritual

A large fresco of a donor on the south wall of the canopies of Cave 130 in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, by an unknown author, was completed during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. The original is badly damaged, and the copies seen today are restored by Duan Wenjie, former director of the Dunhuang Academy.

The Lady of the Governor, Mrs Wang, is from Taiyuan, the wife of the governor of Jinchang County, Le Tinggui, who became governor around the twelfth year of Tianbao (753). From right to left, the governor's wife and her two daughters ( Shiyiniang and Shisanniang), together with nine attendants.

The original mural was covered by frescoes from the Western Xia period and was stripped out and exposed to the sun in the 1940s, resulting in severe damage to the mural.