Lingering around Luoyang

Well, we got to Luoyang around 6 in the morning, which is early, even for the Chinese. We checked into the hotel determined to just put our stuff down and head right back down, but we ended up crashing for more than a few hours. When we awoke, we went straight to Luoyang's most famous attraction, the Longmen Caves.

A long time ago, Luoyang was the capital for a few Chinese dynasties. Unfortunately, not too much of that history is still visible in the town. The Longmen Caves are an outstanding exception. Back in mid-first century when Buddhism was dominant, many artists started carving Buddhas into the cliffs. Eventually, more than 100,000 images and statues were carved. Each one is done in a cave, the size varies with the image. It is really impressive sight, check it out below.

I wish you could see that one a little bit closer up. There are a lot of them there believe us. Plus, the trees are covering a good portion. This picture is only one side of the river, the other side has even older carvings. I'm a big fan of smiling, happy buddhas, so I was happy to see this one.

The most famous "cave" is below. It attracts a big crowd, and it is magnificent. Rarely ever do we get to see works of art in China so beautifully preserved. Next, you can see the right side of the cave. It shows how well these images are carved, and also shows that you wouldn't want to tangle with a buddha's security.Unfortunately, not all of the caves are so well preserved. Some of the caves were vandalized by Westerners eagerly wanting to bring them home. A lot of these have been replaced, but some are still in museums throughout the world. The Cultural Revolution also left many of these statues headless or faceless as communist and Mao extremists came to destroy religion and relics. A lot of the statues look like the one below, of often times, worse. Our next matter of business was to visit a famous temple in Luoyang, called the White Horse Temple. It is recognized as the first Buddhist temple in China. It was also established in the 1st century CE when two Indian monks came riding into Luoyang on white horses with ancient Buddhist texts. We've seen a lot of temples now, and I've got to say, they don't really hold too many surprises anymore. Although the White Horse Temple is very similar to the rest, it has a beautiful campus with a lot of gardens. Above, you see Darbie with one of the horse statues that recall the white horses (though this one is grey). Below is a cool pagoda that was supposedly built to house the scriptures, though I'm fairly sure it's just empty these days. Last, Darbie has a deep love for circular doors. These can be seen in a lot of Chinese architecture, both inside and outside.

We had planned to go visit the famous Shaolin Temple, which some of you Kung-Fu buffs might know is the temple with the fighting monks. It is also the refuted home of Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism. But, not having anyway to return to Qingdao besides hard-seat train (not an option) prevented us from visiting. Oh well, always something for next time we find ourselves stuck in Henan. After a lot of hassle and hustle and bustle, we ended up flying back to Qingdao on a leisurely 1.5 hour flight (a lot more convenient than the would be 17 hour train ride).

DB & KM