YUN-KANG CAVES

Pinyin Yungang, series of magnificent Chinese Buddhist cave temples, created in the 5th century AD (Six Dynasties period). They are located about 10 miles (16 km) west of the city of Ta-t'ung (Datong), near the northern border of Shansi province (and the Great Wall). The caves are among the earliest remaining examples of the first major flowering of Buddhist art in China. A low ridge of soft sandstone was excavated to form about 20 major cave temples and many smaller niches and caves, stretching for over half a mile (about 1 km) from east to west. Some of the caves served merely as cell-like enclosures for colossal figures of the Buddha (up to about 45 feet tall), while others contained chapels. The earliest five temples were instituted by the head of the Buddhist church, a monk named T'an-yao, about 460; their construction was among the first acts of propitiation sponsored by the foreign T'o-pa, or Northern Wei, rulers (386535) for their persecution of Buddhism during the period 446452. The colossal Buddha images in each cave were equated with the first five emperors of the Northern Wei, thus emphasizing the political and economic role that the court imposed upon Buddhism. The remaining temples were largely constructed in the succeeding decades until 494, when the Northern Wei court was moved to the city of Lo-yang (Honan province) and a new series of cave temples was instituted at the site of Lung-men (see Lung-men caves). The predominant sculptural style of the innumerable images (primarily of the Buddha, with ancillary figures) is a synthesis of various foreign influencesincluding Persian, Byzantine, and Greekultimately derived from the Buddhist art of India. Late in the period of major work at the site, a new Chinese style appeared, based on indigenous styles and forms; Yn-kang, however, is considered as the type site for the first style, and the later caves at Lung-men the type site for the second style. See also Northern Wei sculpture.