From the 8th to the 10th centuries, a type of Buddhist ceremony known as wuzhe ceremonies that served the various functions of mourning the deceased, making statues and stupas from molds and celebrating the completion of cave construction appeared in Dunhuang. Wuzhe means "uncovered" or "unconcealed" to indicate that all members of society were welcome to participate and would be seen as equals within the ceremony. Due to the limitations of the local geography and population, even though the contents covered by the ceremonies were great, the scale of the Dunhuang version could not compare with the imperial or national-level wuzhe ceremonies. Furthermore, the repurposing of these gatherings for the purposes of making Buddhist statues and stupas and celebrating the completion of cave construction evince features of regional culture that was unique to Dunhuang.
