Yungang Grottes Introduction

Yungang Grottes, located at the foot of the Wuzhou Mountain, 16 kilometers from Datong City, is one of China's four most famous "Buddhist Caves Art Treasure Houses". Still extant today are 53 caves, which house over 51 thousand stone carvings. The magnificent carvings on a wide range of subjects, absorbing essence of both Chinese and foreign arts, have great artistic charm.

The largest Buddha statue enshrined at the center of Cave No.5 is 17 meters high. At either side of the Cave arch door, with fine relief sculpture of "Flying Apsaras" at the top, is a Buddha statue in sitting posture under the bodhi tree.

Most of the caves at Yungang were carved between 460 and 494 AD during the Northern Wei Dynasty under the supervision of a Buddhist monk named Tan Yao. They appear to have been modeled after the caves at Dunhuang (Mogao Grottoes) started one hundred years earlier, the statues here are hewn from the solid rock and are some of the oldest in China.

The earliest work at Yungang is seen to be 'mainfestly western' in origin. This can be seen by the Persian and Byzantine weapons, lions and beards, Greek tridents and the acanthus leaves of the Mediterranean, as well as images of the Indian Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva. Chinese styles are reflected in the form of bodhisattvas, dragons, and flying apsaras.

The caves stretch for almost 1 kilometer east to west and contain over 50,000 statues. 52 caves that still remain. Although the majority are closed to the public.

Product Information

NAME: Yungang Grottes
Products No.:VCD0326
Price: U$39.00
Package: 1 VCD, English Version
Please contact Mr. Wang Tao to order
P.S. The pictures presented on the right are snatched from the VCD

Such CD is of English version and both the English subtitle and explanation by the guide can help you well understand what you see from the presentation and learn the interesting stories described by the cavings