Yungang Grottoes
— — Buddhas the Northern Wei left in the rock.
Not only on a wall.
“A sandstone cliff west of Datong, in northern Shanxi, cut with 252 caves and more than 51,000 Buddhist figures. The work began in 460 under the Northern Wei dynasty and ran for about sixty years. The earliest caves hold colossal seated Buddhas, the largest reaching seventeen metres, carved when the Wei capital still stood at nearby Pingcheng. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2001.
Yungang Grottoes, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Yungang Grottoes lie at the foot of the Wuzhou Shan mountains, about 16 kilometres west of central Datong in northern Shanxi province. The carved cliff face runs roughly one kilometre east to west. Construction began in 460 under the Northern Wei emperor Wencheng, supervised by the monk Tan Yao, and continued in earnest until the Wei moved their capital south to Luoyang in 494. UNESCO inscribed Yungang as a World Heritage Site in 2001 for its synthesis of Chinese and Central Asian Buddhist sculptural traditions.
The cliff is a soft yellow sandstone that took the chisel cleanly but weathers under wind and freeze-thaw cycles. The five earliest caves, known as the Tan Yao caves (16 through 20), each hold one colossal seated or standing Buddha, the largest reaching about 17 metres. Cave 20's open-air Buddha is the most photographed figure on the site, its outer wall having collapsed long ago. Later caves show finer relief work and traces of original pigment in the protected interiors.
The site sits on the road between Datong and the coal town of Zuoyun. High-speed rail from Beijing reaches Datong in roughly two hours; the grottoes are a further 20-minute drive west. The site opens daily, with peak visitation in autumn when the Shanxi air clears. A site museum near the entrance covers the Northern Wei context and the conservation work undertaken since the 1970s, when coal-mine dust was the most pressing threat to the carvings.