Yulin Grotto

 

 

 

 

Located some 68 kilometers away to the south of the County seat of Anxi the Yulin Grotto is caved in a mountain valley. As growing here are a lot of elm-trees hence the derivation of the name for the grotto. Now there are a total of 41 caves with 30 along the eastern cliff and 11 along the west. Caved and repaired through the periods of the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Western Xia and Yuan and Qing it has seen enshrined here 5650 square meters of frescoes and 272 statues, totaling 10826 pictures of Buddha, Bodhisattvas and gods.

 

Yulin Grottos can be traced to the same origin in contents, artistic style and form of painting for the Mogao Grottos. It is regarded as its sister with its name known to many people in the country. The No.25, No.3 and No.29 are the representative caves here. The buildings, terraces, arbors and pavilions in the heavenly world as described in the “Western Pure Land Episodes” and the “Amitayus Episodes” represented the highest attainment in the artistic technique of the Tang Dynasty. The jovial atmosphere of songs and dances to extol the good times of the Tang is hallucinated in an imaginary World of Buddhism. As representative works of the Dunhuang Murals, the two copies of the murals are now on display in the Gansu Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing . Also quite rich here are murals with the thematic topics and contents of the Five Dynasties, the beginning of the Song, Western Xia and Yuan dynasties.

 

 

The pictures and portraits concerning cultivation and harvest, marriage and drinking bouts, game of chess, brewery, metallurgy and music and dances reflect truly a realistic life of the time. In Cave 29, the mural about “Pilgrimage of Xuanzang” with its high historical and artistic value is regarded as a rare piece of treasure of the world. Besides, excavated here are also some ivory Buddha carvings rarely seen elsewhere in the world.