Binglingsi Grottoes

Binglingsi Grottoes is located in Gansu Province, 35 kilometers away from the southwest of Yongjing County, Lanzhou City. At some point the caves were named the Thousand Buddha Caves (Qian fodong), despite the fact that there have never been more than 200 grottoes. Binglingsi Grottoes’ construction began in 420, after Northern Wei (386-534), Northern Zhou (557-581), Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907) and in Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming (1368-1644), it was still made up. The existing caves are 183, a total of 694 stones statues, 82 mural sculptures about 900 square meters which is located in the high cliff’s surface in the West Bank Temple. The features of the fresco are simple, straightforward, fresh, natural and vivid.

Features of the Fresco in Each Dynasty

During 386-581, Sakyamuni Buddha statue in the main, a Buddha or a Buddha and a Bodhisattva or two Buddhas were sitting side by side. The feature was in a delicate way and paid attention to expression characterization. While in Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), the statues tended to have large rounded shape. Binglingsi Grottoes in Sui (581-618) and Tang Dynasty (618-907) came to another peak. The manipulation in Sui was more skillful, delicate than that in Northern Zhou. Besides, it was full of changes. More exquisite sculptures appeared in Tang Dynasty. The line was concise and successfully demonstrated in figures of the muscle and the folds’ changes. After the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the murals in Binglingsi Grottoes have continued, but have had no big change.

Several Important Grottoes

Cave 169, is the largest, oldest in Bingling Temple. Besides, it is the most extensive cave and is the essence of Binglingsi Grottoes. It is located above the Tang Dynasty Buddha Caves, 50 meters high from the ground, and is an originally natural cave. The Cave 169 is 26.75 meters wide, 15 meters high and 19 meters deep. There are 24 existing shrines. The sixth and the seventh niches are the representative’s shrines. One Buddha and two Bodhisattvas in the Niches are vivid and expressive. The important value of the Cave 169 still depends on finding the earliest dated inscription. The inscription not only can make us know the accurate building time of the Binglingsi Grottoes, but also gives us strong evidence and clues to study the Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes and Hexi Grottoes.

Cave 126, built in Northern Wei Dynasty, is 3 meters high, 2.9 meters deep. 112 statues are there in it, which are the representatives of the Northern Wei Dynasty’s grottoes.

Cave 3, built in Tang Dynasty (618-907) and redrew in Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) is 3, 5 meters high and 3.1 meters deep. The whole tower and the details are full of the early Tang style, which is an important kind of information to study Tang Dynasty Buddhist Grottoes’ architecture. This grottoes mix the feature of India’s characteristics with Chinese national architecture form, which is the only one around the whole country.