Among the murals in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, the murals reflecting Buddhist culture are the most, which can be divided into six categories: story painting, historical painting, statue painting, patron saint painting, decorative painting and myth painting.

Story painting is to express abstract and profound Buddhist classics with popular and vivid pictures.

After painting, it is to express profound Buddhist classics with easy-to-understand pictures. Changing a painting is also called "changing" or "disguised". Broadly speaking, any painting with Buddhist scriptures as its theme can be called "change".

Buddha painting is a fictional Buddha painting based on the image of Sakyamuni, including three Buddha statues, seven Buddha statues, one thousand Buddha statues and ten Buddha statues.

The patron's paintings are portraits of people who believe in Buddhism and contribute to the construction of grottoes. Family, relatives and handmaiden can draw. The builders of Mogao Grottoes include monks' groups, local institutions and private monks and laymen.

Decorative paintings are mainly used for the decoration of grottoes. Decorative patterns are colorful and ever-changing, mainly including edge ornaments, ceiling lights, backlights, niches, herringbone shawls, flat chess, algae wells, lotus flowers, flags, tiles, utensils, costumes and other patterns.

The mythological paintings in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes are paintings with the theme of national traditional myths.