LUOYANG
LUOYANG, a major city in Henan province with a total population
of 6 million, is known as the "city of peonies,"
that every year in the mid of April, the peonies festival
would attract many visitors from all over the country
and abroad, who come not only for the peony flower show,
but also for the famous business trade fair. Luoyang is
situated in the center of ancient China and on the north
bank of the Luo River. As far back as the Neolithic Era,
the area was well populated. The capital of the bronze-age
Shang Dynasty was in the present-day Anyang, and then
in the 11th century B.C., one of the Zhou kings made his
temporary capital at Luoyi near |
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Luoyang. Since
the new China set up in 1949, the city has grown into an important
industrial center with machine-building works, chemical factories,
textile plants, glass works and a large tractor factory. It
becomes well known by the tourists due to the Longmen Grottoes,
which is one of the three most famous grottoes in China. The
rest two are Yungang Grottoes in Datong and the Mogao Grottoes
in Dunhuang.
The Longmen Grottoes
About eight miles south of Luoyang on the Yi River, at a spot
where high cliffs on either side form a pass, is a caved area
once known as the "Gate of Yi River", which later
became known as Longmen, the Dragon Gate. Craftsmen began
works on Buddhist grottoes in 494 AD when an emperor of the
Northern Wei dynasty moved the capital from what is now known
as Datong in Shanxi Province to Luoyang. The artistry is therefore
an extension from Datong. The work at Longmen proceeded through
seven dynasties, and in more than 1,300 caves, there are 40
small pagodas, and almost 100,000 Buddha statues ranging in
size from one inch to 57 feet. These caves and the stone sculptures
contain rank with the caves at Yungang and Dunhuang as the
great remaining masterpieces of Buddhist culture in China.
The Longmen Grottoes is one of the most attractive tourist
scenic spots in China and many people come specially to visit
this great Buddhist works.
White
Horse Temple
White Horse Temple, ( Baimasi in Chinese) is located 12 km
away from Luoyang City, the capital of Henan province. Established
by the Han Dynasty in 68 AD when Buddhism started to be introduced
into China. According to historical records, Emperor Ming
of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 AD) once sent his minister
on a diplomatic mission to western region to learn about Buddhism.
After finished study, they came back with two eminent Indian
dignitary monks - She Moteng and Zhu Falan, and a white horse
carried  the
sutra and the figure of Buddha. In order to memorialize the
white horse's contribution of taking back the sutra, Emperor
Ming ordered the construction of the temple and named it White
Horse Temple.
White Horse Temple was regarded as the "originating court"
and the "cradle of Chinese Buddhism" by the Buddhist
disciples. It was rebuilt for several times, in which the
restoration during
the reign of Emperor Wu Zetian was especially notable in its
large scale. Today's White Horse Temple is a rectangle courtyard
facing south. The gate of the White Horse Temple was built
in Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and it is three arches side
by side. Covering a total area of 40, 000 square meters, the
temple mainly consists of Tianwang Hall, or Hall of Heavenly
King, Great Buddha Hall, Daxiong Hall or Hall of Great Hero,
Jieyin Hall, Qingliang Terrace and Pilu Pavilion, which are
all distributing along the north-south central axis. The White
Horse Temple is one of the major tourist programs and the
most famous historical site in Luoyang.
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