In 2016, I had the good fortune to visit the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and see the amazing Dunhuang exhibition from the Mogao Grottoes built along the Silk Road from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries. It was so impressive that I chose an image of a seated Buddha from that exhibit as the common theme of this BLOG. CLICK for August 7, 2016 article and photos of Dunhuang Exhibition.
This morning my brother sent me a beautiful facebook video of the Longmen grottoes that are equally impressive. I enjoyed them so much and was reminded that it was the ancient art of China that really started me on my quest of Buddhism, although it took almost two decades for me to find a Chinese source again.
When I was, I thought, about to graduate from the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University in 1965 or so, I discovered that because I had not taken ROTC as all the male students were required to do, I did not have enough credits to graduate. Somehow, I think because there were so few females in engineering then, I was not aware that I needed extra electives. The only course I could find that sounded at all interesting was something in ancient Chinese art. I remembered the course caused me to be quite angry and feel cheated as I realized I knew nothing about the great culture of China. My education was so Euro-centric, it was as if nothing else mattered. Of course, China was pretty closed to westerners then, but it was the start of my interest in the East, which finally resulted in me finding the Buddha while on a trip to Kyoto in the early 80’s. Although I was able to briefly visit China on that trip, I was not aware of anything Buddhist in China. Seeing these Grottoes again reminded me of this incredibly rich heritage of Buddhist devotion that created this art and how grateful I am to have found this spiritual path and have the amazing good fortune to meet and follow H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha. Happy New year!
The Longmen grottoes located on both sides of the Yi River, are often described as the most “Chinese” of the grottoes. Where the Yungang grottoes show early Indian influence and the Mogao show Silk Road cosmopolitanism, the Longmen grottoes represents the mature, fully sinicized form of Chinese Buddhist art. The Tang‑era almost 60 foot Vairocana Buddha shown here— serene, powerful, compassionate — is considered a masterpiece of world sculpture.
And this is what it is like to visit these caves today:
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