BINYANG CAVES - BINYANG DONG

Just after Guyang, these are actually three caves (south, central and north), the most important of which is that of the centre. Built under the reign of Emperor Xuanwu (500-516), in honour of his father (Emperor Xiaowen) and his mother (Empress douairière Wenzhao), they were designed on the model of the temple Lingyan in Yungang (Datong).

The ensemble asked for more than twenty-four years of work carried out by more than 800 000 workers. At the entrance to the centre's cave, two Buddhism guards protect the three Buddhas: that of the Past (Mahakasyapa), the Present (Sakyamuni, the centre) and the Future (Maitreya). In the middle of the ceiling, you can see a lotus flower around which ten apsaras (heavenly dancers assimilated to the girls of joy) fly.

The walls of the cave also contain four banner of bas-reliefs, which are now largely deteriorated. The third, which represents two scenes of Emperor Xiaowen and Empress Wenzhao performing Buddhist rituals, is currently at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the Kansas Nelson Art Gallery. Still visible, the first bandeau describes scenes of the Buddha's life, the second of the representations of Buddhist philosophy and the fourth ten-sculptées Buddhist deities and flanked of two disciples and bodhisattvas. Between the central cave of Binyang and the south, the Yique niche containing a 1,90 m high stele commemorates the construction of the caves of Binyang.