Longmen Grottoes

I lived in China for two years, and traveled pretty extensively throughout China and Asia. Longmen was a highlight. Our friend, who went with us, and is Chinese cried. He said that he didn't know his country had created something so beautiful. Indeed.

The Longmen Grotto is an incredible and breathtaking dive into beauty. The main group took my breath away, and the lovely river views were a sight to behold. 

We further explored Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Dengfeng having adventures in China. We found a karaoke bar nearby that ironically had Judas Priest's song, Breaking the Law. We had an incredible time, as the Chinese very much like to party, and are curious of westerners so far in the interior of the country. We were the only westerners at the site during our visit.

Longmen Grottoes is a large collection of Buddhist carvings into caves and grottoes, in a kilometre-long series of cliffs above the Yi River. There are several thousand caves and grottoes here, with tens of thousands of carvings; everything from a 19-meter high Buddha statue, to minuscule figurines scarcely 10cm high. Most of the carvings date back to a period between 500-700 AD. Like many cave art sites, it’s been subjected to centuries of weathering, looting, and vandalism, so the overwhelming majority of the statues are damaged in some way - eroded, faded paint, faces smashed off, looted, and so on.

The highlight here is the main grotto, home to an enormous 19-metre high Buddha statue, flanked by a pair of boddhisatvas, kings, and fierce guardians. I loved the artistic style on display here, particularly the guardian on the northern wall, glaring furiously at anyone who dares enter. Small wonder it’s survived the centuries mostly intact.

Overall it’s a great example of carved religious art, though perhaps not quite as impressive as similar-ish sites in India like Ajanta, Ellora, and Elephanta caves.

While you’re there:

The site is on both sides of the river, and has been organised so that you walk north -> south on the western side, cross a bridge over the river, then proceed south -> north on the eastern side, before crossing back over the river to the initial entrance. The western side is by far the more impressive, featuring both the highest …

The Longmen Grottoes are a huge area of Buddhist caves and statues carved into the hillsides of two opposing hills along the Yi River. Longmen means Dragon's Gate. There are more than 100.000 statues ranging from tiny (2.5cm) to huge (17m) in size. The site was built primarily during the Tang dynasty (600-900CE), but first carvings were done a bit before (493CE).

I came on a day trip from Xian. Honestly, I didn't expect much as the title is really not helping. But after I came and saw the scope of the area and the sheer abundance of carvings, I was very glad I came. This is a stellar site and should be included in a visit to Xian.

Getting There

Via fast rail you can easily travel to Xian and Zhengzhou, the next major cities. Xian is a must see for any reputable WHS traveller for the Terracotta Army.

The fast rail station in Luoyang is aptly named Luoyang Longmen and is located South of town (as so many other fast train stations in China). While included in the name, the Grottoes are yet even further to the South and you will have to get some transport (cab, bus).

If you plan to combine the Grottoes with a visit to the Shaolin Temple (Dengfeng), you should get a driver at the train station and negotiate a fixed price for the whole day. I paid 500 RMB I think. A driver (not …

After a long bus journey from Luoyang train station, I was at Longmen bus stop without any problems, but the thing I encountered was a large complex of well-designed mockup traditional village to serve tourist spending. I had to walk through this fake village with countless shops selling souvenirs you can find everywhere in China for almost 15 minutes, a real exhausted experience from tourism industry. Thankfully that beyond the village was a beautiful and peaceful landscape of riverside garden spanning from the village to the limestone cliffs located both side of the river forming a pretty river valley where ancient Chinese named this area “The Dragon Gate” or Longmen.

With the hefty fee of 120 RMB, I went under the arch bridge which cleverly used as an entrance gate engraving Longmen name in traditional Chinese alphabet, a real unique as other Longmen sign in other places using simplified alphabet, a really nice small detail if you know Chinese. After passing tourist information center, the wonderland of hundreds of grottoes appeared. For over 200 years, artists were busy for craving the striking white limestone to hold thousands of small Buddha statues, a real religious devotion transforming the cliff to be looked like a large emmental cheese. After in-depth admiration, the art of Longmen was divided into two styles – northern Wei style and Tang style.

From my perspective, northern Wei Buddhist art was quite strange; a collision of many central and eastern Asian art elements, a face of …

The Longmen Grottoes are located about 15 kilometers south of Luoyang. I arrived there by taxi in the late afternoon. There's a large sign just past the entrance that it is forbidden to take pictures, except "for personal souvenir". The Chinese were happily snapping away though, so after some hesitation, I did the same. The many sculptures are well visible within their caves. Most of them have their heads smashed, a result of the Cultural Revolution.

The two highlights for me were the Wanfo Cave and the Binyang Cave. The Wanfo Cave is were 15,000 small statues of Buddha are chiseled in the walls of the cave. Binyang is the biggest area, where the huge statues are almost out in the open.

Across the bridge, on the East Hill, there are more grottoes. I found these less spectacular than the ones on the West Hill. It is worth to get over anyway because there's a great overview of all the caves on the other side. The enormity of it all becomes much clearer then.

It is tempting of course to compare these carvings to the ones I saw earlier this trip in Dazu. The Longmen Grottoes are from a much earlier period however. They lack the colouring and the details of social life that characterize Dazu. The interest of the Longmen Grottoes lies in the size of the area and the multitude of Buddhist carvings that are present.

Indeed, this is one of the many outstanding Chinese masterpieces, added to over many centuries. It was a most thrilling experience to visit Longmen.

My first visit to Mainland China was in 1980, and I have returned on a number of occasions.

I served as a "Foreign Expert" teaching English and Western Civilization at the Normal College of Foreign Language in Beijing in 1987-8. The Foreign Experts Bureau was based at my residence hotel, the Friendship Hotel in Beijing. Not only did they 'watch over us', they were there to assist us in many ways. About every third week they organized a weekend visit to historic sites. I visited twenty-one provinces that year, usually for less than US$20 a weekend, everything included. Those were the halcyon days of China before the tragedies of 1989.

My visit to Longmen was in May 1988, and there was considerable time to visit the various caves. It was somewhat understanding, though disappointing, to see all of the vendors and to see people climbing among the statues. I understand that the vendors have been removed from the immediate area. That visit has remained one of the highlights of my numerous visits to China.

My interest in Chinese architecture developed greatly as a result of these tours, and it led to my extended participation in a co-operative web photo venture on "Asian Historical Architecture." The site includes almost fifty photographs of the Longmen Grottoes, plus a long essay (plus the Yungang Grottoes, and about 10,000 images …

You may discern in the attached photo, taken outside the Longmen Grottoes, that the majority of the people are wearing blue “Mao suits” – this photo was taken on my first visit to China in May 1978. It is perhaps worth recalling the historical background of the time. In late 1976 Mao Tse-Tung had died and the hard line communist “Gang of Four” had been arrested by Hua Kuo Feng who was still prime minister at the time of our visit. On the other hand Deng Shao-peng was still a “non-person” after proposing supposedly “rightist” views in 1975 (but would re-emerge in the next few months, pay a visit to the USA in Jan 1979 and ultimately replace Hua’s “Soviet planning” approach with more pragmatic economics). China was “on the cusp” as it tentatively moved towards opening up – and the rest as they say “Is History”!

It was fascinating to visit China at this pivotal time – all the outward shows of strict Communist rule were still in place – the Mao badges, the collective farms, the neighbourhood committees. Yet among the people we met one sensed a strong desire to change. As part of the “opening up” small groups of tourists were “invited” (but paying!) as “Foreign Friends”. This gave us a status which unfortunately was soon to disappear in China’s dealings with foreign tourists! We were asked what we wanted to see and it was arranged. So schools, universities, hospitals, factories, mines, collective farms and workers flats …