The Tianlongshan Grottoes (, English translation: Mountain of the Heavenly Dragon) are

caves Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock ...

located in

Taiyuan Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: (Jin Chinese, Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base foc ...

Shanxi Province Shanxi; formerly romanised as Shansi is a province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi and Datong. Its one-character abbreviation is ( ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, that are notable for the

Buddhist temples A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhi ...

located within them. The temple complex spans two mountains: there are eight grottoes on the eastern mountain and 13 on the western mountain. The complex was constructed over a number of centuries, from the

northern Qi dynasty Qi, known as the Northern Qi (), Later Qi (後齊) or Gao Qi (高齊) in historiography, was a Chinese imperial dynasty and one of the Northern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties era. It ruled the eastern part of northern China ...

until the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, and contains Buddhist art of high historic importance. The majority of the caves date to the Tang dynasty. The caves have been designated by the government as a

Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level A national priority protected site is the highest-level national protection for immovable cultural relics in China. The designation was first created under the 1961 Provisional Regulations on the Protection and Management of Cultural Relics, whic ...

Artwork

A number of works of Buddhist sculpture survived in the caves, including over 1,500 statues and 1,144 reliefs sculptures. Many of the sculptures are of painted stone. The subject matter includes images of

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

and

bodhisattvas In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, ''Enlightenment in Buddhism, bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal n ...

. The caves' Tang sculptures are noted for their soft modeling, sensuous drapery, and naturalism. A connection to the Gandhara style of Buddhist sculpture has been proposed.

Similarities with Central Asian Buddhist styles

The Buddhist art of Central Asia, particularly the area of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, in the 7th-8th century CE shows a phase using "Sinicized Indian models"."Stylistic similarities between the images of Fonduqistan and late Tapa Sardar and the early 8th-century Tang production of Tianlongshan have been noted, and the existence of a 'common international style' inclusive of Tang China and the regions to the west and south of the Pamir has been suggested" in During this period, the Chinese

Tang Empire The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and T ...

extended its influence and promotion of Buddhism to the Kingdom of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, with a corresponding influx of Chinese monks, while there was conversely a migration of Indian monks from India to Central Asia, precisely looking for this protection. These events gave rise to the hybrid styles of Fondukistan and of the second artistic phase of Tapa Sardar in Afghanistan. This style is part of a cosmopolitan artistic idiom which spread from China to Central Asia at the time, with similarities visible for example in the Tang productions of Tianlongshan.

Removal of the sculptures

In the 1920s, a number of the sculptures were removed and sold to collectors abroad. In particular, the publication by Japanese art dealer Yamanaka Sadajirō of a book on the caves' contents led to a sharp increase in collector interest. For this reason, many sculptures originating from Tianlongshan are currently housed in foreign museums.

Sculpture digitization

The Tianlongshan Grottoes exist today in a damaged state in Taiyuan with so many of the sculptures now missing, that visitors to the caves cannot imagine how they looked in the past. Many of the sculptures from the caves are now in museums around the world. Researchers at the University of Chicago initiated the Tianlongshan Caves Project in 2013 to pursue research and digital imaging of the caves and their sculptures. The Project seeks to record and archive the sculptures and to compile data that can identify the fragments and their places of origin.

Gallery

Tang Torso Sitzender Buddha Museum Rietberg.jpg, Torso of a sitting Buddha Tang Sitzender Bodhisattva Museum Rietberg.jpg, Sitting bodhisattva Tang Stehender Bodhisattva Museum Rietberg RCH 134.jpg, Standing bodhisattva File:Tang Bodhisattva Head, Tianlongshan.jpg, Tang Bodhisattva Head, Tianlongshan

References