Fengxian, or Feng Xian Si, or Li Zhi cave is the Ancestor Worshipping Cave, which is the largest of all caves carved on the west hill built between 672 and 676 for Empress Wu Zetian. The carvings are claimed to be the ultimate in architectural perfection of the Tang dynasty. The shrine inside the cave measures 127 feet x 115 feet . It has the largest Buddha statue at the Longmen Grottoes. Of the nine huge carved statues, the highly impressive image of Vairocana Buddha is sculpted on the back wall of the Fengxian. The image is 57 feet high. An inscription at the base of this figure gives 676 as
Fengxian, or Feng Xian Si, or Li Zhi cave is the Ancestor Worshipping Cave, which is the largest of all caves carved on the west hill built between 672 and 676 for Empress Wu Zetian. The carvings are claimed to be the ultimate in architectural perfection of the Tang dynasty. The shrine inside the cave measures 127 feet x 115 feet . It has the largest Buddha statue at the Longmen Grottoes. Of the nine huge carved statues, the highly impressive image of Vairocana Buddha is sculpted on the back wall of the Fengxian. The image is 57 feet high. An inscription at the base of this figure gives 676 as the year of carving. The Lung-men Caves are a large-scale grouping of Buddhist cave temples located south of the city of Lo-yang in China. They are considered one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. The caves were carved into rocky cliff faces on both banks of the Yi River. There are as many as 100,000 statues of Buddha, bodhisattvas, and other figures within the 1,400 caves, ranging from an 1 inch to 57 feet in height. The construction of the caves began after Emperor Hsiao-wen of the Northern Wei dynasty had transferred the capital from P'ing-ch'eng to Lo-yang in 494 and continued over 400 year period into the late T'ang dynasty (618-907). In 2000 the site was inscribed upon the UNESCO World Heritage List as "an outstanding manifestation of human artistic creativity,"
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