Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Longmen Grottoes

After a morning at Shaolin Temple, we drove to the Longmen Grottoes, also in the Henan province. This was a lovely bridge we passed on our walk into the park. Those icicles were probably 4-5 feet tall!

An important notice for the battery cars. Please take special notice of #3: please do not frolic on the car.From Wikipedia: Longmen Grottoes are one of the three most famous ancient sculptural sites in China. There are over 2100 niches, more than 100,000 statues, some 40 pagodas and 3600 tablets. 30% of the caves date from the Northern Wei Dynasty, 60% from the Tang Dynasty, and caves from other periods less than 10%. It is the most impressive collection of Chinese art from these dynasties, and, dating from 316 to 907 CE, represents the zenith of stone carving in China
From Jill: The grottoes are beautiful and extend for a few kilometers on either side of the Yi river. We only walked on one side because it was too far for Dean (and probably me, too). I have included some of my fave pictures, some of which still show the paint that was originally on the inside of the caves. Pretty impressive, considering how old these caves are.


How would you like to be the Buddhist monk carving those upper caves? Once again, their devotion outshines mine. Thankfully, we have grace!


























2 comments:

Jennifer said...

These posts are killing me! Absolutely hysterical signs! (We took pics of signs too...hilarious!)

So glad to see all the smiling faces in the pictures. Can't wait to see a picture with ALL the kiddos together!

Sheryl Dunn said...

Thanks for sharing so much of your family with us; it's been a DELIGHT catching up on your recent trip and family happenings. It's so inspiring and uplifing to see God's blessings in others. With that said, congratulations on Dean! You have a truly beautiful family! :)

Sheryl (from Ch13)