precious-postcards

Yungang Grottoes

The Yungang Grottoes, in Datong city, Shanxi Province, with their 252 caves and 51,000 statues, represent the outstanding achievement of Buddhist cave art in China in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Five Caves created by Tan Yao, with their strict unity of layout and design, constitute a classical masterpiece of the first peak of Chinese Buddhist art.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1039

The Yungang Grottoes are excellent examples of Buddhist cave art, dating from the 5th and 6th centuries. They are located near the city of Datong in the Chinese province of Shanxi. The site stretches about 1 kilometer from east to west, and holds 53 caves with 51,000 statues.

Yungang is a relic of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) of the nomadic Toba people. They recruited 3,000 monks from along the Silk Route to turn Buddhism into their state religion.

The caves can be divided into 3 phases:

1 - Caves 16-20 (Five Caves of Tan Yao, where the Wei-rulers were depicted as living Buddhas).

2 - Caves 1, 2, 3, 5-13 (more varied and Chinese in concept).

3 - Caves 4, 14, 15, 20 and the rest (smaller caves).

During these phases, the 'foreign' Indian Buddhism turned into a Chinese folk religion.

In 494, the Wei moved their capital from Datong to Luoyang and the Yungang Grottoes slowly fell into decay. The caves used to be protected by wooden temple buildings, but most of them burnt down. Many of the artwork was stolen in the early 20th century and now resides in museums and private collections around the world. 

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/yungang.html