Carving of the Yungang Grottoes

The Yungang Grottoes lie at the southern foot of Wuzhou Mountain on the western outskirts of Datong, Shanxi. Carved into the hillside, they extend about 1 km east to west and are one of China's largest ancient cave complexes; with the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang and the Longmen Grottoes of Luoyang, they are called the three great grottoes of China. After the Northern Wei made Pingcheng its capital, the rulers strongly promoted Buddhism. Emperor Taiwu once ordered a suppression of Buddhism, which Emperor Wencheng restored after taking the throne. Around AD 460 Emperor Wencheng had the eminent monk Tanyao lead the carving of caves at Wuzhou Mountain; the first five large caves (now Caves 16 to 20) are called the “Tanyao Five Caves,” and their great Buddhas are said to be carved in the likeness of the five emperors from Emperor Daowu to Emperor Wencheng. The open-air Buddha in Cave 20, about 13.7 m high with a full face and broad shoulders, is majestic and is the symbol of Yungang. Carving continued for decades, stopping gradually after the capital moved to Luoyang. Yungang now has 45 main caves and over 59,000 statues of every size, the largest 17 m high and the smallest only a few centimeters. The sculptures inherit the fine tradition of Chinese sculpture from the Qin and Han, absorb features of Gandharan and Gupta art of ancient India and blend Xianbei aesthetics; early statues have an obvious foreign flavor, while later ones show Han-style dress with “loose robes and wide belts,” reflecting the sinicization of Buddhist art and ethnic fusion after Emperor Xiaowen's reforms. The caves also have many flying apsaras, musicians and Buddhist story carvings. In 2001 the Yungang Grottoes were inscribed on the World Heritage List.