In academia, there are two main views regarding the era of mural paintings from the main chamber of Cave 10 in the Yulin Grottoes. Most consider that it could be dated back to Xixia, but some believe that it might be the Yuan Dynasty. The core basis of the Xixia view lies in the fact that the two musical instruments held by the flying apsara musicians in the cave are thought to be Xiqin (奚琴) from Xixia, which is a kind of plucked instrument without a bow. But it's clear to see in the mural painting that the two musical instruments have bows. The bowed string instruments were introduced into China from the West Asia and began to be known in the central plains since the Yuan Dynasty. The murals in Cave 10 of Yulin Grottoes are predominated by blue, which was preferred in the Yuan Dynasty, rather than red that was the favorite color in Xixia. The pattern of Loong (龙) appears in the style of West Asian dragon featuring fierceness, which was special in the Yuan Dynasty and totally different from the Loong characterized by tameness in Xixia. On the south of the west wall in the main chamber of Cave 10, a framed inscription by painter records that seven painters from different places painted a “Tantric painting” at the Yulin Grottoes in 1341 (the seventh year of Zhiyuan Reign in the Yuan Dynasty), which is exactly the mural of Cave 10 in the Yulin Grottoes. It's said that the painting was chipped out of the wall afterwards probably for its large number of Tantric images regarding vidyaraja and vidyarajni. In conclusion, the mural of Cave 10 in Yulin Grottoes should be from the Yuan Dynasty.