The Longmen Grottoes consists of 1,352 caves, 785 niches, 3,680 gravestones, 40 pagodas and more than 97,000 statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats with many sizes.
The Longmen Grottoes is located six kilometers from south of the historic city of Luoyang, central China’s Henan province. It is one of three places of ancient sculpture spectacular with hundreds of statues of all sizes.
The caves mainly described Buddhist themes in carvings along the mountain Xiangshan (east) and Dragon Gate (west).
Stretching for one kilometer along the banks of the Yihe River, these caves are considered as a symbol of Chinese Buddhist art.
The carving work began in 493 AD when Buddhism was spreading east into China and was venerated by the imperial court at that time
The construction continued through the successive six dynasties, including Tang and Song, for a span of over 400 years.
Longmen Grottoes has been destroyed many times, beginning with theanti-Buddhist movement in the 9th century
Some Buddha statues can be found in the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York, or Atkinson Museum in Kansas, USA, and Tokyo National Museum.
The Longmen Grottoes is a World Cultural Heritage recognized by UNESCO in 2000
Source: news.zing.vn
