Yungang Grottoes

20th February 2004

Having been to Longmen, I had expected the grottoes at Yungang to be a similar but smaller-scale affair.

But no! Although (in what seems to be a major PR failure), Yungang had far fewer tourists, there was a great deal to see, and not just more of the same from Longmen.

In sharp contrast to the statues at Longmen, many of the indoor buddhas and other carvings retain much of their former colours (presumably due to some relatively recent restoration, though it was unclear when this had occurred).

Yet amazingly, and quite unlike at Longmen, it was possible to enter almost all of the caves, and see the carvings close up.

That is is possible to wander freely into almost any of the caves is both the best and the worst thing about Yungang.

Unfortunately the chance to get up close to the carvings is a freedom which is inevitably abused, and many of the carvings show the signatures of countless Chinese tourists.