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.