Posted ByChina7day
It takes about 2-3 hours to visit Longmen Grottoes. Here, we can see more than 1000 statues of Buddha, big and small, every minute. According to the statistics of Longmen cultural relic preservation Institute in 1962, there are more than 2100 niches in the two mountains. There are more than 100000 statues of different sizes, more than 40 pagodas, and about 2870 monuments. The main statues are the Northern Wei (Eastern Wei, Northern Qi), Sui and Tang Dynasties. The Northern Wei Dynasty accounts for about 30% and the Sui and Tang Dynasties for about 60%. The largest statue of Longmen Grottoes is the Buddha of Lushena in Fengxian Temple. Most of the Longmen Grottoes are concentrated on the cliffs on the West Bank of Yishui, including 7 large grottoes. Because the rock stratum of the east mountain of Longmen is thinner than that of the west mountain, it is inconvenient to carve large-scale statues. Among the Longmen Grottoes, the Grottoes in the Northern Wei Dynasty are represented by Guyang cave, Binyang middle cave, Lianhua cave, etc. The representative of Sui Dynasty works is Binyang South cave. The representative caves in Tang Dynasty include: Qianxi temple, Binyang North cave, Wanfo cave, Fengxian Temple, etc.
The statue of Longmen Grottoes is not only the crystallization of the infinite wisdom and sweat of the working people and artists of all ages, but also a wonderful flower formed by the combination of foreign culture and Chinese culture. These sculptors, who undertake the mission of making statues for gods, Buddhas and emperors, boldly break through the fetters of religious and ethical “rituals”. In the process of sculpture, a large number of real life is integrated, which vividly shows the moving scenes of various figures. For example, joy, kindness, majesty, reserve and pain, as well as the solemnity and solemnity of the Buddha as the supreme and immeasurable master, and the piety and tranquility of the people who are threatened to serve and support, are all the results of artists’ deep observation of the real “people”, using the combination of realism and Romanticism to highly summarize and concentrate. It can be said that in the sculpture art, the Buddha and the people are lifelike. On the basis of thousands of years of art practice tradition, we learn a lot from foreign culture, create meticulously in technique and style, innovate a lot, break through the tradition, and operate deliberately. Faced with the bare cliffs, the talented ancient craftsmen and sculptors used simple hammers and chisels to carve such a magnificent and exquisite group Buddha statue, which was really amazing under the condition of backward productivity and production tools at that time.
Longmen Grottoes is a colorful and comprehensive museum, which provides precious materials for the study of history, religion, culture, medicine, etc.