Video: Longmen grottoes - a masterpiece of Chinese Buddhist architecture
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Longmen - a complex of Buddhist cave temples carved into limestone rocks along the banks of the Ihe River. This is one of the largest religious buildings in the world, which includes about 1350 caves and 40 pagodas, in which you can see more than one hundred thousand images and statues of Buddha of various sizes.
So many sculptures of Buddha at the same time you will see few places at the same time, except that in Temple of ten thousand Buddhas in Hong Kong. In Longmen, the ancient masters did a great job, and to this day, tiny figures from 1 inch in height and huge sculptures up to 17 meters have survived. The grottoes stretch for a kilometer along the coastline, this is a real a masterpiece of Chinese Buddhist architecture.
Construction of Longmen began in 493 during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen and lasted for over 400 years, during which time six dynasties changed. The greatest flowering was observed from the end of the 5th century. until the middle of the 8th century. Studying the heritage of Longmen, one can trace how the style of work of sculptors changed: during the reign of the northern Wei dynasty, simple images of a rounded shape were created, and during the reign of Tang - more complex compositions, sculptures of women and judges appeared.
Unfortunately, not all of the statues have survived to this day in their original form, much has been destroyed. Some works of art were destroyed in the 9th century during the anti-Buddhist movement, some were plundered by marauders in the 19th and 20th centuries. much was taken out, and today sculptures from Longmen can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Atkinson Museum in Kansas City and the Tokyo State Museum.
Despite all the difficulties, Longmen grottoes have retained their beauty and are considered one of the most visited cultural sites in the Middle Kingdom. In 2000, this architectural monument was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
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