Statue of Buddha doing a V-sign invitation to all
I’d heard a lot about Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, one of the four notable grottoes in China, since I was a child — how it represented the crowning achievement of Buddhism art in China and how it survived wars and lootings. But when the grottoes appeared in front of my own eyes, I realized that no story could compete with the real thing.
After a battery-powered car took me and other visitors from the ticket office to the entrance to the scenic area, I walked along the river toward the grottoes. The Yihe River is a tributary of the Huanghe River. The grottoes are distributed on the mountain cliffs on both sides of the river. The main attractions are on the west side, on the cliffs of Longmen Mountain.
From the Northern Wei (AD 384-536) to the Northern Song (AD 960-1127) dynasties, the sculpting of the grottoes lasted more than 400 years. While the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu Province are mainly known for their frescos, here in Longmen, the art of ancient Chinese sculptures reached its supremacy. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
The grottoes have more than 2,100 caves, in which more than 100,000 statues were sculpted.
The oldest caves, the Binyang Caves, are not far from the entrance. It took 24 years to create the caves and the original sites are still retained. In the caves, a Buddha statue is popular online as he is doing a “V sign” with his right hand. It is praised as the “cutest” Buddha ever. Experts say the “V sign” is actually one of the rarely seen Buddhism gestures that has something to do with Esoteric Buddhism. The gesture probably means that the Buddha takes all the people in.
The image of Buddha statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty was very different from those of the later Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). The Northern Wei statues had the look of northern ethnic people, with a relatively thin face and broad forehead.
The typical Buddha statue of the Tang Dynasty can be found at the largest cave, which is called Fengxian Temple. First dug during the Tang Dynasty, the temple was ordered by Emperor Gaozong (AD 628-683) to be built to bless the soul of his father, Emperor Taizong (AD 598649).
Nine huge statues were lined up in the grotto, including the Buddha, two of his disciples, two Bodhisattva, two warrior guardians and two providers. A long staircase extended from the foot of the mountain to the grotto to show the devoutness of the pilgrims.
The clothes on the statues seemed different, too, as carvings showed that the clothes were thinner, softer and more silk-like than those represented by Northern Wei artists.