What are Longmen Grottoes like?

The Longmen Grottoes are the largest collection of stone carving art with the most statues in the world.

The Longmen Grottoes retain a large amount of physical materials in religion, art, architecture, calligraphy, music, clothing, medicine, etc., which reflect many fields such as ancient Chinese politics, economy, religion, and culture from different aspects. The development and changes have made significant contributions to the innovation and development of Chinese grotto art.

The Longmen Grottoes are large in scale and majestic. The statues in the cave are exquisitely carved and rich in content and themes. They are known as the world's greatest treasure house of classical art. With its own systematic and unique sculpture art language, it reveals various laws and regulations of sculpture art creation.

Attractions of Longmen Grottoes:

1. Xishan Grottoes

There are more than 50 large and medium-sized caves from the Northern Dynasties and Sui and Tang Dynasties on the cliffs of Xishan. Representative caves of the Northern Wei Dynasty: Guyang Cave, Binyang Middle Cave, Lotus Cave, Huangfugong Cave, Weizi Cave, Putai Cave, Huoshao Cave, Cixiang Kiln, Lu Cave, etc.

2. Dongshan Grottoes

Dongshan is full of cave niches from the Tang Dynasty, including 20 large and medium-sized caves, such as Erlianhua Cave, Kanjingsi Cave, and Dawanwu Buddha Cave. Cave (also known as Leigutai Sandong), Gaoping Junwang Cave, etc. It has a double-chamber structure. There are dozens of small niche statues on the cliff wall of the front chamber. The main chamber is 1170 cm deep, 1116 cm wide and 825 cm high. It has a flat top, square plane and four vertical walls.

3. Xiangshan Temple

Construction history: It was first built in 516 in the Northern Wei Dynasty and rebuilt in 687 in the Tang Dynasty to house the body of the Indian monk Dibohara. In the year 690 of Wu Zhou Dynasty, it was named "Xiangshan Temple" and rebuilt.

Reference for the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia—Longmen Grottoes