Longmen Grottoes - The Magnificent Ancient Rock Cut Buddhist Caves In China
- The Longmen Grottoes or Longmen Caves are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of memes of Buddha and his disciples, they are located 12 kilometers south of present-day Luòyáng in Hénán province, China.
- UNESCO has also listed Longmen Grottoes in the World Cultural Heritage Site.
In 2003 Chinese government made large scale renovation to preserve these sites.
Longmen Grottoes
Following are the sites which are a must see if you ever plan to visit this beautiful creation of Buddhists, I would totally recommend you to visit the following amazing sites.
- Qianxi Temple
- Three Bonyangdong Caves
- Middle Cave
- Wanfo Cave
- Lotus Cave
- Temple of Fengxian
- Temple of Xiangshan
- Tomb of Baijuyi
- District Qinggu
- Hall of Letian
- Over around 2 centuries ago, this mountain carving was started by the Wei Dynasty, and then they started expanding it sideways and now it stands as one of the largest ruin sites of Buddhists.
The carvings were ordered by the emperors of the dynasties, a great number of dynasties took part in carving these caves over the time span of 500 years. The site was damaged a lot in the 9th century, a number of statues were destroyed when the Anti-Buddhist campaign was started.
- In 19th century travelers from different continents discovered this site and starting looting the treasures present inside these caves. In the search of treasures, many statues were destroyed and this sacred place was maltreated.
These sites of Longmen Grottoes are now labeled in English for a better understanding of tourists, you’ll be astonished to see how ancient people carved the mountains for accommodation, this site is stretched over 1000 meters.
History
- The grotto was first carved in the North Wei Dynasty, over 1,500 years ago, and was expanded through the succeeding East and West Wei Dynasties, North Qi Dynasty, North Zhou Dynasty, Sui and Tang Dynasties, and was finally completed in the North Song Dynasty.
500 years of renovation and expansion have created this prestigious world cultural site. The most significant chiselling activities happened in the Tang and North Wei Dynasties, which lasted over 150 years.
