The four most famous grottoes in China are the Mogao Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes and Maijishan Grottoes.
1. Mogao Grottoes
Commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave, it is located in Dunhuang at the west end of the Hexi Corridor. It was built in the pre-Qin period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, and has gone through the construction of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Xixia, Yuan and other dynasties. It has formed a huge scale, with 735 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals, and mud paintings. With 2,415 colorful sculptures, it is the largest and richest Buddhist art site in the world.
2. Yungang Grottoes
Located at the southern foot of Wuzhou Mountain, 17 kilometers west of Datong City, Shanxi Province, northern China, the grottoes are carved into the mountain and stretch for 1 kilometer from east to west. There are 45 main caves, 252 large and small niches, and more than 51,000 stone statues. It is one of the largest ancient grottoes in China. The Yungang Grottoes vividly record the history of the development of Indian and Central Asian Buddhist art to Chinese Buddhist art. The trajectory reflects the gradual secularization and nationalization of Buddhist statues in China.
3. Longmen Grottoes
The Longmen Grottoes were excavated during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Afterwards, they were built on a large scale for 400 years through the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song and other dynasties. Over the years, it has been 1 kilometer long from north to south. Today, there are 2,345 cave niches, more than 100,000 statues, and more than 2,800 inscriptions. Among them, the twenty pieces of Longmen are the essence of Wei calligraphy stele, and the Yique Buddhist niche stele written by Chu Suiliang is a model of the regular script art of the early Tang Dynasty.
4. Maijishan Grottoes
It is located at the northern foot of the western section of the Qinling Mountains, 45 kilometers southeast of Tianshui City. It is named because the shape of the mountain resembles the shape of a farmer's wheat stack, and the cave niches are carved into the high ground. A vertical cliff face of 20 to 80 meters and 200 meters wide. A major earthquake occurred in the 22nd year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty, and the central cave collapsed, causing the existing caves to be distributed into two cliffs, the east and the west.
The history of Maiji Mountain:
Maiji Mountain is a typical Danxia landform. The rocks are all purple-brown water-formed rocks. The mountain has a single peak. Initially, there were many Natural cave. Its altitude is 1,742 meters, and the top of the mountain is 142 meters above the ground.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Maiji Mountain had become the summer palace of Kaixiao, a famous general in Tianshui. Here the pines and junipers are gloomy, with flying clouds, smoke, and clear water flowing. Half of the blue clouds, between the cliffs, are carved stone Buddhas with thousands of stone niches, gathering together the people of the Later Qin, Western Qin, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, and Sui Dynasties. There are more than 7,200 statues and more than 1,300 square meters of murals from more than ten dynasties, including the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, distributed in 194 caves.
All caves and niches are dug on the cliffs and are distributed on the east and west cliffs. There are 54 caves on the east cliff and 140 caves on the west cliff. A total of more than 7,200 clay and stone sculptures, stone and clay sculptures, and more than 1,300 square meters of murals. Most of the existing statues are original ones from the Northern Dynasties.