04/21/04

World Cultural Legacy, important national relics reserve - YunGang Grottoes, is a large group of ancient grottoes that has a history of over 1500 years and is China's first all stone carving. With delicate carving and magnificent cutting and carving made by the emperors of the Northern Wei. There are 53 remaining grottoes, 1100 niches of different sizes and 51,000 statues, of which the biggest is 17 meters high, and the smallest is only 2 centimeters high. The stone carving has a unique artistic style and is a lively combination of reality and fantasy of historic and modern beauties. Glorious carving and grand modern civilization make YunGang Grottoes a renowned tourist resort. "Mountains and stones were cut according to the structure of the stone, the grottoes are magnificent and are a rarity of the world. All the halls, temples, forests and lakes make a pleasing sight. So far about one million foreign and over 10 million domestic visitors have visited YunGang Grottoes.

The cutting of YunGang Grottoes began from the Northern Wei. Since Emperor Daowu moved the capital to Datong in year 398 till 494 in Emperor Xiaowen's reign.The accomplished monk, Haoyao took charge of the cutting of the five big grottoes, which are also called "the five grottoes of Haoyao" (460 to 465). The carving of YunGang Grottoes is mainly various lively Buddhist figures and patterns. Among them there are statues of Buddha, Bodhisattva, disciples, feitian, gods and Hercules. There are skillfully carved novel Buddhist stories. There are magnificent decorative patterns and ancient musical instruments.

The carvings have absorbed foreign artistic prime and carried on the Chinese artistic tradition. The early style is influenced by Jiantuoluo art, the middle style is the mature Chinese style and the later style has distinct local style.

The YunGang Grottoes can be divided into three parts, the East Grottoes(#1 to #4), the Middle Grottoes(#5 to #20) and the West Grottoes(#21 to #53). The most often visited is the Middle Grottoes, then the East Grottoes.