There are three famous Buddhist grottoes in China, dating back to the dynastic era.
In chronological order, you have the Mogao Caves [4th century AD], followed by the Yungang Grottoes [early 5th century], and then the Longmen Grottoes [late 5th century].
Having now seen all three, the most magnificent, in terms of visual, is the Longmen Buddhist rock cuts, followed by the Yungang Buddhist rock cuts.
Arguably most people are only aware of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang due to its prominent position along the Silk Road and the discovery in one of the caves of the Diamond Sutra, a major Mahayana sutra, by a Daoist abbot [1900] and “purchased by trickery” of this sutra by Aurel Stein from the ignorant abbot in 1907. It is now in the British Library.
To understand why the Northern Wei dynasty built these magnificent Buddhist rock cuts in Yungang and Longmen Grottoes, one needs to know that Buddhism is an imported religion. A good book is by Erik Zurcher.
Zurcher’s book covers the first 500 years of the spread of Buddhism into China from India. He ends his survey with the Sui and Tang dynasties.
Lwh @ Yungang Caves, Shanxi, China
13 March 2025