Longmen Caves

Longmen Grottoes

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Location	Luoyang, People's Republic of China
Coordinates	34°33′20″N 112°28′11″E / 34.555555555556°N 112.46972222222°E / 34.555555555556; 112.46972222222
Criteria	Cultural: (i), (ii), (iii)
Reference	1003
Inscription	2000 (24th Session)
Location of Longmen Grottoes
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Longmen Grottoes
"Longmen" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese	龙门石窟
Traditional Chinese	龍門石窟
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lóngmén shíkū IPA [lʊ̌ŋmə̌n ʂɨ̌kʰu] Wu Romanization Lon-mehn zah-ku Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Lùhng-mùhn sehk-fāt Southern Min Tâi-lô Lîng-mn̂g tsio̍h-khut (col.) Liông-bûn si̍k-khut (lit.)

The Longmen Grottoes (Chinese: 龙门石窟; pinyin: lóngmén shíkū; lit. Dragon's Gate Grottoes) or Longmen Caves are some of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, they are located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south of present-day Luòyáng in Hénán province, China. The images, many once painted, were carved as outside rock reliefs and inside artificial caves excavated from the limestone cliffs of the Xiangshan and Longmenshan mountains, running east and west. The Yi River (Chinese: 伊河) flows northward between them and the area used to be called Yique (伊阙, "The Gate of the Yi River"). The alternative name of "Dragon's Gate Grottoes" derives from the resemblance of the two hills that check the flow of the Yi River to the typical "Chinese gate towers" that once marked the entrance to Luoyang from the south.

There are as many as 100,000 statues within the 2,345 caves, ranging from an 1 inch (25 mm) to 57 feet (17 m) in height. The area also contains nearly 2,500 stelae and inscriptions, whence the name “Forest of Ancient Stelae", as well as over sixty Buddhist pagodas. Situated in a scenic natural environment, the caves were dug from a 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) stretch of cliff running along both banks of the river. 30% date from the Northern Wei Dynasty and 60% from the Tang, caves from other periods accounting for less than 10% of the total. Starting with the Northern Wei Dynasty in 493 AD, patrons and donors included emperors, Wu Zetian of the Second Zhou Dynasty, members of the royal family, other rich families, generals, and religious groups.