After living in Henan Province for almost seven months, I finally got around to visiting one of the region’s biggest attractions: the Longmen Caves near Luoyang, capital of 13 Chinese dynasties.
Located about 85 miles west of Zhengzhou, the grottoes are a UNESCO World Heritage Site featuring ancient Buddhist rock carvings. Lining both sides of the Yi River, the 2,300 caves contain more than 100,000 statues, inscriptions and other Buddhist symbols that were chiseled into the limestone cliffs beginning about 1,500 years ago.
I toured the caves with a group of 10 teachers and students from my school, plus the daughter of one of the teachers. We hired a van driver to take us from Zhengzhou to the outskirts of Luoyang, where we also visited the White Horse Temple, site of the first Buddhist shrine in China.
The original White Horse Temple, built in 68 AD, no longer exists and its origin is shrouded in mystery. According to one popular legend, two of the emperor’s emissaries were sent to search for Buddhist scriptures. They met two monks in present-day Afghanistan, who brought Buddhist sutras and sculptures to China on white horses. The emperor then built a temple where the monks lived and translated the scriptures into Chinese.
Today the 32-acre site includes a complex of shrines that were constructed during the Ming and Qing dynasties and renovated in the 20th century. Each contains a large Buddha statue, with yellow cushions in front where worshippers can kneel and pray. There’s also an incense burner and an altar topped with fruits and drinks. Judging by the large amount of untouched food, the Buddha isn’t much of an eater.
In a large domed hall, we met a monk who explained the meaning of Buddhist hand gestures known as mudras. One of them, which included figures for youth and age, symbolized the circle of life. “In the beginning, the old person takes care of the young person,’’ the monk told our translator. “In the end, the young person takes care of the old person.’’
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In addition to the ancient temples, there’s a huge new development of Buddhist buildings from around the world that’s still under construction. We dubbed it “Buddhaland’’ because it looks like a religious theme park designed to lure more tourists. To enter the area, you walk through an elaborate archway flanked by a pair of gold-plated horses. Some of the buildings are almost finished, but the site is still filled with cranes and construction workers. The designs are patterned on Buddhist temples from different countries, including Thailand and India. When it’s done, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Ferris wheel and a cotton candy stand.
To go further back in time, we walked by a manicured garden and crossed a bridge to the Qiyun Pagoda, a 13-story brick tower built in the 12th century. The walkway encircling the pagoda is engraved with images of lotus flowers. The flowers are good-luck symbols, so many visitors step on them as they walk around the pagoda.
If you stand 65 feet away from the pagoda and clap your hands, the echo is supposed to sound like a croaking frog. When I did it, the only sound I heard was a cell phone ringing to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.’’
After stopping for lunch – we didn’t order the “water banquet,’’ a soupy 24-course meal that’s a local specialty — our van driver took us to the Longmen Caves about a half-hour away.
After buying our tickets, we split into smaller groups. Together with my teaching colleagues Darren and Nena, I crossed a long bridge to the east side of the river and walked along a path toward Xiangshan Temple, which includes a vacation villa once used by former Chinese President Chiang Kai-shek. We soon realized we were walking the wrong way around the tourist trail, but we had already come so far we decided to continue our wayward journey.
Unfortunately, that meant entering at exits and exiting at entrances to the various sites. Every time we wanted to enter, we had to persuade the ticket-taker to let us walk the wrong way through the turnstile. On second thought, it would have been much easier to turn around, walk back across the bridge and start over.
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Anyway, we climbed a steep flight of steps to Xiangshan Temple, which is named for a fragrant spice found in these hills. At the top, where you have a magnificent view of the grottoes across the river, is a stone slab engraved with a poem describing the beauty of the temple, written by Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century following a visit to Longmen Caves.
Another noteworthy carving on the east side is the Thousand Hand-and-Eye Guanyin, a bas-relief of the Goddess of Mercy surrounded by tiny hands, each with an eye slit in the middle. But the real highlight lies on the other side of the river: the Ancestor Worshipping Temple, featuring a 56-foot-high seated Buddha flanked by eight other massive figures carved into a wall of the largest Longmen cave.
It’s like a Buddhist Mount Rushmore, except that you can walk right up to these monuments.
The Buddha’s face was supposedly modeled after Empress Wu Zetian. Because of her inscrutable look, the seventh-century sculpture is sometimes called the “Chinese Mona Lisa.’’ Since the empress paid for the self-portrait, maybe “Money Lisa’’ would be more appropriate.
The Buddha’s ears are 6½-feet long, but we don’t know about the size of the forearms and legs because, like many body parts of the Longmen figures, they are missing. Collectors have chopped off many heads, vandals disfigured sculptures during the Cultural Revolution and weather has made many of the finer details disappear.
As one visitor quipped: “Even the French Revolution didn’t have this many decapitations.’’
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As we left the Longmen Caves, we passed rows of souvenir shops and outdoor stands where salesmen demonstrated their products. I tried out a spinning top that keeps gyrating when you lash it with a cord in the right spot. I kept the wooden top spinning for several minutes, a talent I attribute to my boyhood dexterity with a yo-yo.
We also stopped to hear a man play “Auld Lang Syne’’ on a small football-shaped, flute-like instrument. The old Scottish folk song is very popular in China, thanks largely to the 1940 Hollywood movie “Waterloo Bridge,’’ in which Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor waltz to the tune.
The film was a big hit in China during World War II and was revived in the 1980s with Chinese dubbing, ensuring that the song would be known by another generation. Though it’s considered a forgettable tearjerker in the U.S., “Waterloo Bridge’’ is regarded as a classic in China, where it’s even used to teach English in schools.
If the French can treat Jerry Lewis like a genius, I guess anything’s possible.
