Henan · Where the Court Carried On After 494
Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟)
Caves, niches and colossal Buddhas cut into limestone cliffs along the Yi river, begun when the Northern Wei moved their capital to Luoyang and carried on by four centuries of dynasties. The limestone let the carvers work much finer than the sandstone at Yungang.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | Caves, niches and colossal figures cut into limestone cliffs along both banks of the Yi river |
|---|---|
| Where | About 13 km south of Luoyang, in western Henan |
| When | Begun around 493, straight after the Wei court moved here from Datong. Carving continues for more than four centuries, peaking under the Tang |
| How much | UNESCO’s inscription counts 2,345 caves and niches, more than 100,000 statues and some 2,800 inscriptions |
| The famous one | The Fengxian Temple group, completed in 675, whose central Vairocana is usually given as about 17.14 metres |
| The rock | Limestone, which takes finer detail than Yungang’s sandstone and suffers more from water |
| Listed | UNESCO inscribed it in 2000 |
| Time needed | Three hours for both banks. Two if you only do the west side |
Why Go
The Second Half of a Story That Starts at Datong
1. Same court, different stone
The Northern Wei began cutting here within a year or two of moving their capital south, and the first caves at Longmen are recognisably the work of the same tradition that made the later caves at Yungang. What changed immediately was the material. Yungang is sandstone: warm-coloured, coarse-grained, good for mass and volume. Longmen is limestone: grey, dense, and able to hold an edge.
You can see the consequence without knowing anything about geology. Fingers, jewellery, the folds of a sash, the scales on a suit of armour, the individual curls of hair are all carved here in a way the sandstone up north would not support. The trade-off is that limestone dissolves in slightly acid water, so the weathering at Longmen tends to be surfaces eaten away rather than blocks falling off.
2. The Tang took over and built the big one
The Wei phase is the beginning; the peak is Tang. The Fengxian Temple group was completed in 675 under Gaozong, with recorded funding from the empress who later ruled in her own right as Wu Zetian, and it is on a different scale from anything around it: a seated Vairocana flanked by disciples, bodhisattvas and armoured guardians, cut into an open bay in the cliff.
A tradition holds that the Vairocana’s face was modelled on Wu Zetian herself. That is a tradition rather than a documented fact, and it is worth separating from the funding, which is recorded. What is plainly visible is that the whole group was once under a roof: the rows of square sockets cut into the rock around the figures held the beams of a timber hall that has been gone for centuries.
The catch. A lot of what you are looking at has been deliberately damaged, and once you notice it you cannot stop noticing it. Heads, hands and whole relief panels were cut out, mostly in the early twentieth century, and sold. The two imperial procession reliefs from the Binyang caves are now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City. Many of the figures on the cliff are missing their faces and most of their hands.
Orientation
West Bank, Bridge, East Bank
Almost everything is on the west bank, and that is where the route starts: a walkway along the cliff past the Binyang caves, the Ten Thousand Buddha cave and the rest, ending at the Fengxian bay, which is reached by a flight of steps and is the point of the visit.
Then cross the bridge to the east bank. There are fewer caves over there, and the reason to go is the view back across the water at Fengxian, which is the only place you see the group whole. Bai Juyi’s tomb and a temple sit behind it on the hill, and the exit is at that end.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Do it in this order
West bank, bridge, east bank, out. Doing it backwards means arriving at the best thing first and walking away from it.
Look up for the sockets
The square holes around the big figures are beam holes. Once you know what they are, several caves stop looking like caves and start looking like the backs of buildings.
It is a long walkway
Three kilometres or so end to end with steps, and the electric buggy only covers part of it. Wear something you can walk in.
Summer evenings are lit
In the warm months the site opens into the evening with the cliffs floodlit, which is a different and much less crowded visit.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| April to May | Luoyang’s peony season, when the city is worth a day in its own right, and the river bank is green | The peony festival brings very large domestic crowds to the city |
| September to October | Clear, dry and comfortable for a three-kilometre walkway | The first week of October is the national holiday |
| June to August | Long days and the evening opening with the cliffs lit | Hot and humid in the middle of the day, with little shade on the walkway |
| November to March | Few people and low sun that reaches into the caves | Cold, bare, and white skies. Every still on this page was taken in this window; the hero clip was not |
Context
Four Centuries, Several Dynasties, One Cliff
Luoyang was a capital many times over, and the cliff above the Yi river was within easy reach of the court each time. That is the basic reason the carving here went on so much longer than at Datong: the patrons never moved away. Wei, Sui, Tang and later donors all cut into the same two hillsides.
The mix of patrons shows in the work. Imperial commissions produced the Fengxian group and the Binyang caves; officials and monks paid for single caves; ordinary donors bought one small figure at a time, which is why whole stretches of the cliff are ruled into rows of identical seated Buddhas a few centimetres high. The inscriptions that go with them, some 2,800 of them, are a primary source for the period and for the history of Chinese calligraphy.
The damage is also historical rather than accidental. Some is iconoclasm from later suppressions of Buddhism, some is weathering, and a large part is the removal and sale of heads and reliefs in the early twentieth century, which is why pieces of this cliff are on display in museums in Europe, Japan and the United States.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Temple · 25 km north
White Horse Temple (白马寺)
Traditionally counted as the first Buddhist temple founded in China, on the other side of Luoyang. Rebuilt many times, with modern Indian, Thai and Burmese halls in the grounds.
Temple · 80 km east
Shaolin Temple (少林寺)
On Mount Song, with the forest of stupas behind it. A very different sort of visit and a heavily commercial one.
Spot · 700 km north
Yungang Grottoes (云冈石窟)
Where the same court was carving before 494, in sandstone. The two sites are one story and reading them together is worth the effort.
Where to Base
Luoyang (洛阳)
Luoyang is on the high-speed line between Xi’an and Zhengzhou, which makes the grottoes an easy stop on a route most people are already travelling. Two hours from Xi’an, five from Beijing.
One night is enough for Longmen and the White Horse Temple. Two if you want Shaolin as well, or if you are here in peony season and want the city itself.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · 3 hr
Both banks on foot
The west cliff to the Fengxian bay, then across the bridge for the view back at it from the east side.
Summer evenings
The lit cliffs
The site after dark in the warm months, floodlit and much emptier than the daytime.
Guided · 2 days
Luoyang and the caves
Longmen with someone who can point out which parts are Wei and which are Tang, plus the White Horse Temple and the city museum.
Worth three hours and worth pairing with Datong if your route allows it. Walk the west bank first, cross for the view back at Fengxian, and look for the beam sockets once somebody points them out. Come in April for the peonies or in a summer evening for the lit cliffs; come in winter and you will have it almost to yourself under a white sky.
Plan Luoyang Into a Xi’an Route
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: the fast train in from Xi’an or Zhengzhou, the grottoes timed before the coaches, and Datong later if you want both halves of the story.