MIHO MUSEUM Shangri-La vol.7

The Crowned Buddha at the Leigutai Nandong

The Longmen Grottoes, or Dragon Gate Grottoes, are located near Wei Shui in the suburbs of Louyang. From the Northern Wei to the Tang Dynasty, people, including various emperors, carved out this large group of grottoes that is among the most famous in China. This exhibition, timed to commemorate the addition of the grottoes to UNESCO’s World Heritage sites, will be undertaken with the cooperation of the Longmen Grottoes Research Institute.
This exhibition will give a general survey of the Buddhist sculptures from the Northern Wei to the Tang Dynasty at Longmen Grottoes. Certain works, such as the crowned Buddha from the Leigutai Nandong, will be exhibited for the first time outside of China. In addition, the Buddhas excavated from the ruins of Fengxian si Temple, one of the ten temples at Longmen, where Jingangzhi Sancang is buried will be shown.

The Longmen Grottoes

Louyang is called “the old capital of nine dynasties.” It is located in a wide basin and can only be reached by a narrow road running along the river or through the mountains. Since the capital of the Chou Dynasty was established there in 770 BC, to defend it from invasion, a total of nine dynasties, including the Northern Wei, Sui and Tang, were located in the region. From the city of Louyang, it takes about 30 minutes by car to arrive at the Longmen Grottoes. The area where Wei sui going through out from the narrow place called Yique, there are grottoes on both the east and west banks. The southern grotto, Leigutai Nandong, is positioned on the eastern bank.
From the time the capital was moved to Louyang during the Northern Wei Dynasty (494 AD), a stone Buddha was carved in the mountainside out of limestone. The grotto runs several hundred meters along the river. Within it there is a small grotto where monks are said to have trained and another in which a stone Buddha was carved in relief.

Until the Sung Dynasty, successive emperors, aristocrats and wealthy merchants contributed more until there was a total of 2,354 grottoes, some 40 pagodas and as many as 100,000 Buddhas. The grottoes are now one of the three biggest such sites in China along with the Dunhang and Datong Grottoes.
From Xiang-shan si Temple, on the bank opposite Wei Shui, the grottoes resemble a bee hive. The Tang Dynasty poets Tu Fu and Li Po visited the area and composed poems about it. The poet Po Chui is also thought to have spent his later years at the temple.

View of Longmen Grottoes from the eastern bank of Wei Shui