Luoyang >> Longmen Grottoes

	Attraction Typ: Historic Site
	Location: about 10 km from city
	Recommend: 5 Star
	Longmen Grottoes
	Longmen Grottoes is a treasure house of ancient Buddhist cave art.
The Longmen Grottoes(Chinese:龙门石窟;pinyin:lóngménshíkū) are located 12km from the city, on both banks of the Yi River and this site is one of the three Buddhist grotto treasure houses in China. The construction of the Longmen Grottoes began in 493 during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen and continued through the successive six dynasties, including Tang and Song, for a span of over 400 years. Altogether there are 1,352 caves, 785 niches, more than 97,000 statues of the Buddha, Bodhisativas, and Arhats, and 3,680 inscribed stone tablets along the 1-km-long cliff of Mt. Longmen on the west and Mt. Xiangshan on the east of the Yihe River south of Luoyang. The style of sculpture, the design of clothing and the facial expression on statues, as well as carving methods show little foreign influence, rather they exhibit the pinnacle of development of Chinese grotto art. The huge statue of Vairocana Buddha is today praised as being the quintessence of Buddhist sculpture in China. On November 30, 2000, the Longmen Grottoes were approved by the 24th UN Heritage Commission to be put on the List of World Cultural Heritage.

Longmen Grottoes