Longmen Grottoes | Luoyang
The Longmen Grottoes are some of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Housing tens of thousands of statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciples, they are located 12 kilometres south of present-day Luoyang in Henan province, China. The images, many once painted, were carved as outside rock reliefs and inside artificial caves excavated from the limestone cliffs of Longmen, running east and west.
We saw a number of stray cats throughout the area, which were likely fed by the tourists and locals.
The cliffs are filled with little dug-out caves, which contain Buddhist statues and figurines carved out of the limestone.
There are hundreds of them up and down the cliff-face.
The main attraction is the massive statue of Buddah, who was supposedly commissioned by and crafted in the likeness of the first (and only) female emperor of China; Wu Zetian.
A lot of the statues have been stolen, or damaged due to attempted theft.
Unsure if this was modified after-the-fact, or just a really happy statue.
