Longmen Grottoes

Longmen Grottoes are located in the bank of Yi River, the southern suburbs of Luoyang, one of four Buddhism Grottoes in China and the protectorate of national important cultural relics. It is famous for its grand grottoes art in the world. Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Yungang Grottoes in Shanxi Datong and Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang are called three grottoes artistic treasure.

The site was started to build from the 18th year of Xiaowendi Taihe  (494 AD), lasted about 400 years and passed many dynasties. Its building time is the longest and the project is the largest among all cultural relics in China. There are 100,000 images of Buddha and 3600 pieces of inscription kept intact among 2000 caves, with about 40 Buddha Towers. Longmen Grottoes were distributed mainly in the cliff of Longmen and Xiang Hills in two banks of Yi River, Luoyang suburbs, it is about 1000m long. Fengxian temple is well worth talking, it is the largest and typical open stone inscription art.

Fengxian temple is uncommon because the grand Sakyamuni Buddha statue in it. The statue is an unusual artistic masterpiece. It is 17.14m of which the head is 4 m high, and its ear is 1.9m long. It looks very gentle with a smiling face, its mouth angle is a little bit up, bow its head and overlook, just like a kindly and well-cultivated sage.

All sculptures in Fengxian temple look magnificent and harmonious. Beside Sakyamuni Buddha statue are the statues of his followers Anan, Jiaye, Pusan, Lishi and Tianwang. These statues look kindly and modest. Tanwang and Lishi, they looks powerful and brave, all these sculptures are a perfect artistic combination.

Another famous cave in Longmen Grottoes is Bingyang Cave located in the north of the Longmen Hill. To finish the cave it took 24 years (its building time is the longest among all caves). There are 11 big Buddha statues within the cave, the main statue is Sakyamuni statue with high nose, big eyes and dignified carriage which is a representative work of stone carving art in middle time of Beiwei.

There were two large types sculptures "Emperor Li Fo Tu" and "Queen Mother Li Fo Tu", many people were drawn up in orderly ranks and Wei Xiao Wen emperor and civilized queen mother were taken as the centre. The sculpture looks very delicate and careful and has very high artistic value. It reflected emperor's life at that time. At present, these sculptures were taken away to U.S.A. and collected by Kansas Nelson Art Gallery and New York Art Museum respectively in America. Guyang cave is also famous, it located in the south of Longmen Hill which is the earliest one. There are lots of statues and inscriptions, the famous 12 kinds of Longmen are mainly concentrated here. Kangyouwei, scholar in the Qing Dynasty praised highly the calligraphy here.

They look powerful, bold and vigorous, their point and drawing are high and thick. All these often attract visitors to look again and again.