Yungang Grottoes — Localization and Secularization of Buddhist Cave Art

What Are the Yungang Grottoes?

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Why Were the Yungang Grottoes Built and Stopped?

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Important Data.

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What Cultural Aspects Do the Grottoes Show?

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Destructions and Protection.

What Are the Yungang Grottoes?

Yungang Grottoes or Yungang Caves, built from 460 to 524, are exceptional Buddhist caves that present the localization and secularization of Buddhist arts in China.

As a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage, statues, reliefs, murals, buildings, and other artistic elements of the Yungang Grottoes hold great religious, aesthetic, historic, and cultural values.

Why Were the Yungang Caves Built and Stopped?

In 452, Emperor Wencheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty ascended the throne and revived Buddhism that suffered havoc from his grandfather Emperor Taiwu's Persecution of Buddhism. 

A respected monk named Tan Yao proposed that the emperors were incarnations of Buddhas in the secular world, which gained Emperor Wencheng's support to construct Buddhist Grottoes in Datong, the capital city of the Northern Wei Dynasty. 

From 460 to 465, Tan Yao built five caves, whose five giant Buddhas represent five emperors of the Northern Wei.

After Emperor Wencheng passed away in 465, his queen Empress Dowager Feng and his grandson Emperor Xiaowen reigned the empire in succession. 

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As royal-supported caves, Yungang Grottoes reflect the history of the empire and the wills of the sovereigns. 

Hence, its construction reached a peak during Feng and Xiaowen's ruling period and Sinicized because of their Sinicization reforms.  

In the year 493, Emperor Xiaowen migrated his capital southward to Luoyang to consolidate his reign, enlarge territory, and prepare for annexing wars against southern kingdoms. 

In the same year, the emperor started to construct imperial Buddhist caves in Luoyang city, where he commanded to build the first cave of the Longmen Grottoes to pray for departed Empress Dowager Feng.  

As for Yungang, after the royals left the city, more caves were constructed under the support of lower-ranked nobles, officials, and civilians, which are way smaller. 

The grottoes' construction in Yungang stopped in 524 when a large-scale rebellion outburst around this area and caused huge chaos, and ten years later, the Northern Wei Dynasty (386  —534) ended. 

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Afterward, Yungang Grottoes suffered destruction and have been restored several times, until it was put under national protection in 1952 and listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 2001.

Important Data of Yungang Grottoes.

• It is located in Datong of Shanxi Province;

• It includes 252 caves and niches, with over 18,000 square meters of carved areas;

• There are over 51,000 Buddhist statues, varying from17 meters to 2 centimeters tall;

• From over half a century's construction, the Buddhist art of Yungang Grottoes shows clear transitions from Western to Chinese Han culture style.

What Cultural Aspects Do the Yungang Grottoes Show?

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As an exceptional Buddhist wonder constructed under the support of royals of Northern Wei, the artworks of the Yungang Caves show many cultural aspects of the empire in the 5th and 6th centuries.

Destructions and Protection

Besides natural weathering, human activity also caused destruction to the grottoes, including stolen in the early 20th century. 

Nowadays, more modern technologies are used to preserve, restore, and display the Yungang Grottoes, including copied caves, digital websites, movies, theaters, performances, videos, etc.