Longmen caves (redirected from Longmen Grottoes)

Longmen caves

 or Lung-men caves

Series of Chinese cave temples carved into the rock of a high riverbank south of Luoyang, in Henan province. Construction began late in the Northern Wei dynasty (AD 386–535) and continued sporadically through the 6th century and the Tang dynasty. Delicately crafted to create ethereal effects in stone, the temples contain images of the Buddha clothed as a Chinese scholar. Work at Longmen culminated in 672–675 with the construction of a monumental shrine known as Fengxian Si, which includes a seated Buddha more than 35 ft (10.7 m) high.