 The
Yungang Grottoes are ancient Buddhist temple grottoes
near the city of Datong in the Chinese province of
Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut
architecture and one of the three most famous ancient
sculptural sites of China. The others are Longmen and
Mogao.
The site is located about 16 km south-west of the city,
in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the
Wuzhou Shan mountains.
The grottoes were mainly constructed in the period
between 460-525 AD during the Northern Wei dynasty. They
are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings
from the 5th and 6th centuries. All together the site is
composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 Buddha
statues and statuettes.
In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World
Heritage Site The Yungang Grottoes is considered by
UNESCO a "masterpiece of early Chinese Buddhist cave
art... [and] ...represent the successful fusion of
Buddhist religious symbolic art from south and central
Asia with Chinese cultural traditions, starting in the
5th century CE under Imperial auspices. |
|
|
