Top 4 Famous Old Buddhist Grottoes in China
by Adrian

September08

China is an old country with long history and rich of culture. At the ancient China, Buddhist is very important and accepted in mostly all of Chinese people. To worship Buddha, people built many sacred and religious sites include Buddhist grottoes, Buddha statues and temples. Visitors could enjoy those grottoes which built outdoor, looks strong and majestic. So if you interested in Buddhist culture and history, here we make 4 major Buddhist grottoes in China with their short description that can be your reference.

Yungang Grottoes
Yungang GrottoesBest Preserved Yungang Grottoes

Regarded as one of the world heritage sites by UNESCO, Yungang Grottoes are the best preserved sites in China with 53 magnificent caves. In total, it composed of 252 grottoes with more than 51,000 stone carvings of Buddha. Yungang Grottoes is located on the southern foot of the Wuzhou Mountains, Datong. For long time, it has become the major tourist attraction of the city.
With their unique layout and design, the Grottoes represented a perfect Buddhist religious art symbol that combines China traditional art form with foreign influence. It is a classical masterpiece of the Chinese Buddhist art.

Mogao Grottoes
Mogao GrottoesLargest Maogao Grottoes

Located 25 km southeast of the center of Dunhuang, Gansu Province, Mogao Grottoes or also called Mogao Caves regarded as the best Buddhist grottoes in China. Known as "the Thousand Buddha Caves", it presently preserved 492 caves housing about 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 2,000 painted sculptures. It is the largest, most richly endowed, and longest used treasure house of Buddhist art in the world.
Mogao Grottoes has been acclaimed as the world's greatest discovery of ancient Oriental culture. It is the best examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years.

Longmen Grottoes
Longmen GrottoesImpressive Longmen Grottoes

Not less popular with other impressive ancient Buddhist grottoes in China, there is Longmen Grottoes. Longmen Grottoes or also called Longmen Caves are located 12 km south of Luoyang, Henan province. In total 2,345 niches or grottoes have been recorded on the two sides of the river which covered one kilometers distance. They house more than 100,000 Buddhist statues, about 2,500 steles and inscriptions, and over 60 Buddhist pagodas in the caves of Guyang, Binyang and Lianhua.
For more than thousand years, Longmen Grottoes has represented traditional Chinese art that represent stunning Buddhist religious site. Very artistic!

Maijishan Grottoes
Maijishan GrottoesComplex Style Maijishan Grottoes

The last but not least famous Buddhist grotto in China is Maijishan Grottoes which located in Gansu Province. In the northwest of China, here offers different grotto design and layout. Consists of over 7,000 Buddhist sculptures, the complex has lies just a few miles south of the Silk Road. The tallest Buddha sculpture is over 16 meters in height. It is the witness of expansion of Buddhism history in China.
You can climb up to look closer the grottoes with stairs that lead up and around the grottoes. From above, you will also see stunning landscapes around the area. That is an old and interesting images of Buddha in China.

Chinese grottoes are the one of bases of Chinese culture, especially the Buddhist culture. So, if you are interested on that, hope this list and description of many grottoes could help you to know them better.

Post in : China Travel Tips , Places to visit in China ,
username:
email:
description:
security code: