Tianlongshan Grottoes

Tianlongshan Grottoes, cut into a sandstone cliff in the mountains west of Taiyuan, contain Buddhist sculptures spanning from the Northern Qi dynasty (550–577 CE) to the Tang (618–907). The site comprises 25 numbered caves with carvings that display a clear stylistic evolution across the six centuries of their making — the Northern Qi figures are blocky and solemn, while the Tang figures achieve an extraordinary softness and naturalism particularly evident in bodhisattva figures.

Many of the most famous sculptures are no longer here — the site suffered major looting in the early 20th century, and the removed pieces now sit in major Western and Japanese museums. The remaining carvings still repay careful attention, and some of the cave interiors retain their original polychrome decoration. The mountain setting is also genuinely beautiful: a gorge walk approaches the caves through deciduous forest, and the views from the cliff top over the surrounding valley are worth the climb.

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The Tianlongshan sculptures were subjected to one of the most systematic acts of cultural plunder in Chinese history. Between roughly 1917 and 1935, Japanese and Western art dealers paid local villagers to remove heads, faces, and individual figures from the cave walls and ship them to museums and private collections abroad. Of the 500-plus figures estimated to have existed, the majority are now in foreign collections — the Metropolitan Museum, the Fogg, the Freer Gallery, and dozens of others. China has been attempting to repatriate them since the 1990s, with partial success.

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