Longmen caves

Longmen caves, series of Chinese cave temples carved into the rock of a high riverbank south of the city of Luoyang, in Henan province. The cave complex, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000, is one of China’s most popular tourist destinations.

The temples were begun late in the Bei (Northern) Wei dynasty (386–534/535), in the Six Dynasties period. Following the transfer of the Bei Wei capital from Pingcheng (present-day Datong, Shanxi province) south to Luoyang in 495, a new series of cave temples was begun there. These were based on the precedent of an ambitious series of caves built in the preceding decades at Yungang.

The Bei Wei caves at Longmen (including the well-known Guyang and Binyang caves) are intimate in scale and display complex iconography that is elegantly crafted into hard stone. The Buddha images—clothed in the costume of the Chinese scholar, with a sinuous cascade of drapery falling over a flattened figure—provide an example of what is known as the Longmen style, in contrast to the blockier Yungang style (see Northern Wei sculpture).

Construction at the site continued sporadically throughout the 6th century and culminated in the Tang dynasty (618–907) with the construction of a cave shrine, known as Fengxian Si. This truly monumental temple was carved out over the three-year period between 672 and 675. The square plan measures about 100 feet (30 metres) on each side, and a colossal seated Buddha figure upon the back wall, flanked by attendant figures, is more than 56 feet (17 metres) high.