0129 - Stone sculpture of the Feng Hsien Temple at Lungmen, Loyang. The cav...Back

Stone sculpture of the Feng Hsien Temple at Lungmen, Loyang. The caves of Lungmen were first built in the eighteenth year of the reign of T'ai Ho (A.D. 494) of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but further expanded in the Tang Dynasty. Built in the reign of Emperor Kao-tsung of the Tang Dynasty from A.D. 672 to 675, the Feng Hsien Temple is the largest of all Buddhist cave temples at Lungmen. Its central figure with a height of 17.14 metres represents the Vairocana Buddha, which is flanked on each side by an attendant Bodhisattva and a disciple. The north and south walls are each carved with figures of a guardian-king and a dvarapala, both well over ten metres in height.