Grotto

China s grottoes had their originations in India s grotto temples, and this model was spread into China sometime during the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It blended in rapidly with Chinese traditional elements and left behind a huge number of grottoes. The development of grottoes reached its peak during the periods of Wei, Jin and Tang dynasties. The earliest grottoes were predominantly spread along the route that connects China and India-The Silk Road.

Not only that these grottoes recorded the history of Buddhism in China, but the frescoes in the grottos are also a reflection of ancient China s development in art and culture. China s most popular grottoes are Mogao Grotto in Dunhuang of Gansu, Yungang Grotto in Datong of Shanxi, and Longmen Grotto in Luoyang of Henan.

Other well-known grottos include Sichuan s Dazu Grotto, Gansu s Tianshui maijishan Grotto, and Shanxi s Taiyuan Tianlongshan Grotto, and Gansu s Yongjing Bingling Temple Grotto. Out of all these grottos, Maogao Grotto is the largest in size. The process of development is also the longest and is broadest in content, and the most well preserved.

Dunhuang of GansuProvince is situated at the junction of the north and south sections of the Silk Road. Once, it was a bustling city that saw a high volume of trade, and it was populated with Buddhist temples. Mogao Grotto is commonly known as the Thousand Buddha Cave . From the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms (304-439) till the Yuan Dynasty, Mogao Grotto went through a development process that spanned more than ten dynasties. Today, the cliffs of Dunhuang are full of grottos, all interconnected with wooden planks. Within the grottos are beautiful frescos and painted sculptures.

Mogao Grotto was built in the architecture style that wss common during the period of the Tang and Song dynasties. These eaves of the grottos employed the use of techniques that were common in China for building wooden structures, reflection the process of assimilation of Chinese culture. In the frescoes that were created in differen dynasties, what one see are the scenes of daily social activities of the ancient people. The characters of the frescoes present a good study on the costumes and accessories worn by the differen ethnic groups in different periods.

The Buddha images back then were strongly influenced by the Central Asian art. The looks of the characters and their costumes are rich in Indian and Persian flavors. It was until the Northern Wei Dynasty that the depiction of the characters in the frescoes started to change. One noticeable change would be the costumes, which had become more Chinese in style.

The Tang Dynasty was the peak of the development of Buddhist art. During this time, the images of Buddha became plumper and more lifelike, and the decorative lines in the images took on very obvious changes as well. The palaces and the various buildings such as pavilion, chambers, pagodas and bridges depicted in the frescoes during this time became treasures to historians in leading them to new historical finds around the whole of China.

Worth mentioning here is one of the famous frescoes of Dunhuang called the Flying Apsaras . Asparas is a female mythical spirit, which, in Buddhism, has a flair in music and the dance of flight. Though it does not carry a pair of wings, the ancient Chinese artists liked to depict her in a dance of flight, like she is flying into the sky. It is a mesmerizing character in Dunhuang s frescos that have stole the hearts of many visitors.

As the images of Buddha built at the grottos art began to be increasingly larger, the development of grotto art began to be shifted to the exterior of the caves. During the Tang Dynasty, the largest image of Buddha in China-Leshan Buddha in Sichuan-came into being. This huge image of Buddha was carved out of a cliff, in accordance to the original height of the cliff.

The construction of the image began in the Tang Dynasty in 713, and took a total of 90 years to complete. The Buddha image measures 71 meters in height, 24 meters in width. The ears of the images measure 7 meters in length, and can seat two people within each ear. The foot of the image can hold more than a hundred people.

One can barely imagine its actual size. To date, Leshan Buddha is the world s largest Buddha image.

source: Chinese Architecture, published by China International Press