Longmen Grottoes

This Buddha and its guards were funded by Empress Wu.

We roll into the city of Luoyang late in the evening and learn that this colorfully lit city has three sacred things - peony flowers, "shui xi" (aka watery food) and Longmen Grottoes (aka Dragon Gate grottoes). So we hit the Shui Xi right off the bat. We sip a jujube soup, rice pudding with sprinkles on top, and a few other soup-like dishes that we had a hard time keeping track of. We eat like royalty; historically, the emperors were the primary consumers of Shui Xi.

 

All those holes in the cliff are filled
with Buddhas carved out of the rock.

Although the city has a much livelier feeling than many of the others we've been to - festive Christmas light trees, fancy squares with music and dancing - we turn in early, exhausted after day of exploring. The next day we head straight for a World Heritage Site called Longmen Grottoes. Buddhas of all shapes and sizes riddle the limestone cliff faces with a honeycomb of history. With a history of over 1,500 and more than 100,000 Buddhas, the grottoes are simultaneously humbling, spiritual, and ridiculous. 

Some small....

....some huge!

The Buddhas were carved to honor family members, 

Many, many holes.

emperors, empresses, and community members as well as the true Buddha. We stand in awe of Buddhas the size of fingertips, Buddhas with colored haloes painted around them, intricate braided clothing, and Buddhas that tower over 60 feet tall. There is a hush in the place as visitors observe the incredible artwork of these ancient artists and the incredible dedication it took to honor gods or people in this way. There are some that have been polished dark from people reaching to touch them, typically thought by Chinese people to bring good luck. Many Buddhas have kept the details of their clothing and hands, but their faces have fallen off in chunks. Is that weathering or vandalism? We can't quite pin it down. 

Thousands of Buddhas.

Some walls have tiny villages of Buddhas. We learn that these are kind of like our brick walls with donors names in them. Communities pitched in money, and the bigger donors got a bigger Buddha. Some of the Buddhas have sacrifices at their feet, but the most valuable one we see on this day is an apple nibbled down to the core before being placed strategically at the base of the Buddha. 

 

The more you look the more you realize there is no One Buddha. Our

One of the few colorful Buddhas.

 favorite bares a striking resemblance to the Empress Wu, an outrageous and epic character who worked her way from concubine to Empress status. The Buddha with a woman's face and crown is as big as Wu's ego...about 57 feet tall. Wu, the only empress that we've learned about, was a ruthless and talented leader, vastly expanding the empire and state support of Taoism, Buddhism, education, and literature. So while this place can have a spiritual hush, it can also give you an awareness of just how much praise a big ego might demand. 

 

The crowning glory of Longmen Grottoes.

We are sad to leave too!

Longmen Grottoes is a big tourism center, so on the way out, we join in the national sport: Bargaining. We haggle our way down the row of shops and come away being better at saying and recognizing numbers! The souvenirs aren't bad either.

---Ranger Megan