Location: 10 mi (16 km) West of Datong, Shanxi province Map
Tel. (0352) 510 2265
Open: 8:30am- 5:30pm daily
Yungang Grottoes is a medieval Buddhist complex designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and situated 10 mi (16 km) West of Datong in Shanxi province in China. The work on the Yungang Grottoes religious complex started in the 5th century AD when Northern Wei dynasty took control of this region. China was fragmented at the time and nearby Datong (known at the time as Pingcheng) was the capital of the kingdom. Rulers of the country adopted Buddhism as the state religion and started a construction of a massive temple cut in the rock. The legend states that the first five caves were cut by a single monk Tan Yao. From 460 AD to 525 AD local peasant and monks alike cut over 252 caves with over 51,000 statues that adore them.
With the decline of the Jin dynasty, the Northern Wei dynasty was
established in the northern part of China, which also includes the area
around Datong. She made Datong, then known as Pingcheng, her capital.
Although Buddhism was initially a foreign religion for the new dynasty,
it promoted it considerably, especially since in the Buddhist school of
the time a ruler well-disposed towards Buddhism was equated with the
living Buddha. At the time construction began in 460, Buddhism was
already largely established as the state religion in the area of the Wei
Dynasty. The work on the Yungang Grottoes extended over a period of 65
years from 460-525 AD, although there were frequent interruptions. The
construction can be divided into three phases (see also the description
of the caves below). First, the early phase of 460-465, carried out
under the monk Tan Yao and characterized by five monumental caves. Six
years after the end of the early phase, the middle phase begins,
spanning from 471-494. This phase is characterized by support from the
ruling house and, with the numerous twin and triplet caves, represents
the core area of the entire complex. The last main section is the late
phase from 494-525, which was guaranteed by private patronage and
therefore mainly produced small caves and niches. The transition from
the second to the third phase of construction was triggered by the fact
that the capital of the Wei Dynasty was moved to Luoyang in 494, and the
interest of the ruling house in the progress of the work ended. After
Datong was shaken by riots in 523, the city became temporarily
depopulated, so that work finally came to a complete standstill in 525.
Since the work was completed, the caves and statues have been
heavily exposed to weathering, as they are made of sandstone. Therefore,
in the following centuries there were repeated efforts to preserve or
restore the condition of the caves. As early as the Liao Dynasty, in the
years 1049-1060, many statues that had already been damaged were
restored and the so-called "10 Temples of Yungang" were built in front
of the grottos, but they were destroyed again a little later, in 1122,
by a fire . In 1621, during the Qing dynasty, the wooden protective
buildings, which are still preserved today, were erected in front of two
of the monumental caves to prevent further destruction of the caves by
the weather. During the entire period that followed, restoration work
was repeatedly carried out on statues and caves and some of the statues
were repainted. Since the 1950s, efforts have been made by the Chinese
government to preserve the condition of the grottoes and statues through
security measures. Attempts were made both to limit the natural erosion
caused by the ingress of water by grouting and sealing cracks that had
formed and to limit the damage caused by sandstorms by planting trees.
Attempts were also made to reduce the pollution of the grottos from the
surrounding coal mines.
The caves have been included in the
Shanxi Monuments List of the People's Republic of China since 1961
(1-34). Proposed for UNESCO World Heritage status in the late 1990s,
they were included in 2001.
The facility stretches for about a kilometer along a sandstone wall
at the foot of Wuzhou Shan. The grottos follow the course of the river
valley in an east-west direction. The complex consists of 42 grottoes
and another 210 niches with a total of over 51,000 Buddha statues. Since
the grottos were worked in the sandstone that is common there and they
were constantly exposed to the weather, the outer areas in particular
are heavily weathered.
The grottoes can be divided stylistically
into three different construction phases. The early phase of 460-465,
the middle of 471-494 and the late of 494-525 AD From the earliest
construction phase date five huge U-shaped main caves (Nos. 16-20) at
the west end of the central part the plant. They were dug under the
direction of monk Tan Yao and house monumental statues measuring up to
15 m in height.
The five large statues show different
representations of the Buddha; a seated Shakyamuni in No. 16, a seated
Maitreya in No. 17, a standing Shakyamuni dressed in a robe decorated
with many small Bodhisattva figures in No. 18, another seated Shakyamuni
(at almost 17 m tall the second tallest in Yungang) , who is surrounded
by meditating Bodhisattvas, in No. 19 and a 14 m high seated Buddha in
Grotto No. 20, which probably collapsed in the 10th century. The statues
are also representations of the reigning Wei Emperor Wen Cheng (No. 16),
Prince Jing Mu (No. 17), Emperor Tai Wu (No. 18), Emperor Ming Yuan (No.
19) and Emperor Dao Wu (No. 20), which were seen as personifications of
the Buddha. The figures are designed with elaborately folded robes and
rich ornaments. Rectangular holes can be seen on some of the monumental
statues, probably from a later period when the statues were covered with
layers of clay and redesigned. After the clay was later removed, the
holes in the beams used to support the clay layer remained. On the walls
of the caves there are thousands of smaller statues, some of which
represent the various mythical forms of Buddha as Buddha of the past,
present and future, some show scenes from Siddharta's life, some depict
images of their donors. The elaboration of the clothes and the jewelery
of the figures shows that the style of the statues from the early phase
is still strongly influenced by India. Cave No. 20 is no longer
recognizable as such, as over the centuries the roof of the cave has
collapsed and the statues contained in the cave are now in the open.
In the second phase, a series of twin grottos (nos. 1-2, 5-6, 7-8,
9-10) and a triple grotto (nos. 11-13) were created. The grottos from
the middle phase represent the most important part of the entire
complex, both in terms of their number and the richness of their
furnishings. The grottos of the middle phase have a square floor plan
and some have a stupa as a column in the middle of the room. The style
of decoration and figures has now evolved into a typically Chinese
style, showing kinship with the linear, geometric style of Han dynasty
depictions.
The late phase caves (mainly nos. 21-45, 3, 4, 14 and
15, but also more than 200 other small caves and niches) are smaller and
much more inconsistent than the early and middle phase caves. While
Grotto No. 3 features a monumental ensemble of the three Buddhas of the
past, present and future, Grotto No. 15 is known as the Thousand Buddha
Cave (Chinese 千佛洞, pinyin qiān fó dòng), on whose wall more than a
thousand small Buddha and Bodhisattva statuettes a few centimeters tall
are gathered. As a rule, however, the ornamentation of the statues is
less detailed in the late phase.
The Yungang Grottoes are the
most important examples of Buddhist stone carving in China, along with
the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang and the Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang.