Longmen Grottoes: an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity

The Big Vairocana (left) is the largest Buddha statue at the Longmen Grottoes. The statue is 17.14m high and has 2m long ears. (People’s Daily Online/Kou Jie)

The Longmen Grottoes represent the best of Chinese Buddhist art. Located 12 kilometres south of Luoyang in central China’s Henan Province, the Longmen Grottoes site has more than 2,300 grottoes with 110,000 Buddhist figures and images, more than 80 dagobas and 2,800 inscribed tablets, all of which were created between the Northern Wei (386-557) and Song (960-1279) dynasties.