Longmen Grottoes is one of the most spectacular places I have ever been. Alastair and I don't know much about Buddhism, but we can sure appreciate it. The most important thing to understand is that Luoyang is old and filled with history. There's much to see pertaining to historical events, but Luoyang has one gem; Longmen Grottoes.
There's a cliff face along a river that has been carved out with Buddha's of all shapes and sizes. Small, medium, and large Buddhas. They are everywhere! Buddhas are along the sides of the walls and standing prominently in caves. They were once painted, but now are weathered from the elements. The most unfortunate thing about this place is that a while ago, people carved the Buddhas out to make a little cash. This is now a world heritage site, so they are doing all they can to preserve. The faces and missing Buddhas will never be returned, but we can admire what has remained.
They have added features to make this place more spectacular; water fountains and a lights show. That's what gets the crowd coming, water and lights. We weren't able to see the Grottoes illuminated with lights, but I'm sure it is magical.
As we walked around and looked at the smaller Buddhas, we finally arrived at the bigger Buddhas. The biggest Buddhas at this site are situated right in the middle of this cliff. This part was my favorite. They were so beautiful to look at in real life. The majority of the Buddhas were unscathed, except for 1 or 2. If you can see, there's one defaced on the left hand side of the picture below. How unfortunate.
My favorite Buddha would have to be the one that Alastair is standing in front of. This Buddha's face was carved to resemble a woman, the empress. During that time, there was an empress. I can't recall if she was the only empress, but she was very influential. So they carved the Buddha's face to look like hers.
After looking at the Grottoes up close, we crossed the bridge and admired from afar. It too is quite spectacular from a distance. The Chinese sure know how to amaze us with their craftsmanship.
