LUNG-MEN CAVES

Pinyin Longmen, series of Chinese cave temples carved into the rock of a high river bank south of the city of Lo-yang, in Honan Province. The temples were begun late in the Northern Wei dynasty (386535), in the Six Dynasties period, and construction continued sporadically through the 6th century and the T'ang dynasty (618907). Following the transfer of the Northern Wei capital from P'ing-ch'eng (the present Ta-t'ung, Shansi Province) south to Lo-yang in 494, a new series of cave temples was begun, based on the precedent of an ambitious series constructed in the preceding decades at Yn-kang (see Yn-kang caves). The Northern Wei caves at Lung-men (including the often-cited Ku-yang cave and the Pin-yang cave), however, are more intimate in scale, more complex in iconography, and more preciously and elegantly crafted to create ethereal effects in the hard stone. The Buddha imagesclothed in the costume of the Chinese scholar, with a sinuous cascade of drapery falling over an increasingly flattened figureprovide the type form for what is known as the Lung-men style, in contrast to the blockier Yn-kang style (see Northern Wei sculpture). Work at the site, which continued in a minor and sporadic way through later times, culminated in the T'ang dynasty with the construction of a cave shrine, known as Feng-hsien Ssu, of truly monumental proportions, carved out over the three-year period 672675. The square plan measures about 100 feet (30 metres) on each side, and a colossal seated Buddha figure upon the back wall, flanked by attendant figures, is more than 35 ft high.