I've been remiss in posting my final sets of photos, but we went to some interesting places I want to share with you! After Pingyao, we continued north to Datong, home of 云冈石窟, the Yungang Grottoes. The site has 252 grottoes and over 50,000 Buddha statues! Some of the earliest carvings are thought to date to the fifth century.
First, there's a modern grand entrance and temple complex.
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| Entrance to the site. |
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| I love the detail and shape of the eyes. They look ringed in kohl. |
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| Modern temples near the grottoes. |
After walking through the temple compound, we crossed a bridge and walked through the old grottoes.
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| Many of the heads were smashed during the cultural revolution. |
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| From inside. |
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| On the larger statues, head-smashing was too difficult, so the eyes were knocked out. |
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| On the left is the entrance for one of the more ornate caves (in which photography is not allowed). |
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| See all those little marks on the surface? I can't imagine how long it took to chisel these. |
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| My, what big earlobes you have... |
