龙门石窟
Ladies and gentlemen, now let’s appreciate the great works of ancient Chinese.What we can see now is the first temple in the western hill---Qianxi Temple, which was built in the early Tang Dynasty.The word Qianxi means hidden stream in Chinese.During the construction of the temple, the workers found a hidden stream at the place of the cave, hence the name.
After seeing the Qianxi Temple, the cave in front us are the Bingyang Caves.The caves consist of the three large caves, the North, the Middle and the South Caves.They were all built under the imperial court of the Northern Wei Dynasty.The project was not finished in the Northern Wei Dynasty except the central one because of a palace rebelling.There are 11 big statues in the middle cave.Sakyamuni is of dignified and serene appearance, while his disciple and Bodhisattva are of slender figure and elegant look, which are the typical style of the late Northern Wei Dynasty.The floor is engraved with lotus patterns and on the rooftop is a relieve of flourishing lotus flower.The South Cave was completed in the late Sui Dynasty, and the North Cave in the early Tang Dynasty, each with a style of their own days.In the West Hill of Longmen, there are several “the most” caves to feast your eyes.Just now, we visited the Ten-thousand Buddha Cave with 15000 Buddhist images, which has the most Buddha images, and the Lotus Cave with 2cm-high Buddha images, which are the tiniest Buddha images.
And now, we’ve come to another “most”, the Fengxian Temple, the symbol or the soul of the world-known great Longmen-grottoes, built in the Tang Dynasty, and it is the largest grotto in Longmen Temple with a width of 36 metres (about 118 feet) and a length of 41 metres (about 136 feet).There are nine major figures of various facial appearances and temperaments in the temple that were built in accordance with the Buddhist rite and their relationships by the artists.The most impreive figure is the statue of Vairocana Buddha sitting cro-legged on the eight-square lotus throne.It is 17.14 metres (about 56.23 feet) in total height with the head four metres (about 13 feet) in height and the ears 1.9 metres (about 6.2 feet) in length.Vairocana means illuminating all things in the sutra.The Buddha has a well-filled figure, a sacred and kindly expreion and an elegant smile.At the sides of Vairocana there are two statues of Vairocana Buddha\'s disciples, Kasyapa and Ananda, (Heavenly King and Great Men of Strength) wearing prudent and devout expreions.The various appearances and delicate designs are the representations of Empire Tang\'s powerful material and spiritual strength as well as the high crystallization of people\'s wisdoms.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is the “Prescription Cave”, known as Yaofang Dong in Chinese, because 140 prescriptions were engraved at the doorway or inside the cave.It was started in the Northern Qi Dynasty and completed in the early Tang Dynasty with duration of 200 years.The prescriptions preserved in the cave boast the earliest of all the prescription carvings of ancient times.Then we come to the Guyang Cave.It is the earliest cave in Longmen Grottoes.It has a history of over 1500 years, and was developed on the base of a natural cave.There are three tiers of niches on the northern and southern wall of the cave, in which are hundreds of statues, and most of the statues are engraved with the names of the artists, the dates and the reasons for carving them.One thing we have to point out is that nineteen of the most famous Twenty Calligraphies are found in Guyang Cave.Twenty Calligraphies represent the steles of the Wei\'s style, which are the eentials of stele calligraphies in Longmen Grottoes.Ok, Dear friends, the Longmen Grottoes trip is coming to the end.I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.It is my hope that you’ve enjoyed the trip as much as I have.Thank you!
