|
Among
the unsung wonders of China's history-soaked heritage are the
1,500-year-old Buddhist grottoes of Datong ---an eight-hour train
journey from Beijing---in Shanxi Province.
In
a valley at Yungang, some 10 miles
west of Datong and easily reached by taxi or public bus, more than 50
recesses have been dug into the hills and filled with Buddhist statues
of various sizes and shapes, 51,000 altogether.
From
the 56-foot
Seated Buddha to tiny figures just a few centimeters tall,
every wall and archway is crammed with carvings, including serial-type
representations of scenes from Buddhist mythology and the lives of
famous monks.
Datong
has several other tourist attractions – such
as the 600-year-old Nine-Dragon Screen made of glazed tiles, the Huayan
Monastery with the largest wooden shrine hall in China, and the Shanhua
Monastery, intact since 713. |
