A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
A view of the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan Province /CGTN
Home to thousands of caves and niches and almost 110,000 Buddhist stone statues, the sheer scale of the Longmen Grottoes is breathtaking. Work first began there in the late 5th century, during the Northern Wei Dynasty, with the most intensive period of carving lasting until the mid-8th century. The crowning jewel is the 17-meter-tall Vairocana Buddha, considered by many to be the quintessence of Tang Dynasty (618-907) sculpture. It was commissioned by Empress Wu Zetian, China’s only female emperor.