Yixian County Wanfo Cave

Jinzhou Yixian County Wanfo Cave|||Jinzhou Yixian County Wanfo Cave The cave is over 1,500 years old and is a Northern Wei Dynasty cave complex. The western cave was built by General Yuan Jing, the governor of Yingzhou during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and was a royal cave. The chief designer was Master Tanyao, who built the Yungang and Longmen Grottoes. Three years after the completion of the western cave, Han Zhen built the eastern cave. In the early days, the western and eastern caves had a total of more than 16,000 Buddha statues, hence the name Wanfo Cave (Ten Thousand Buddha Cave), and more than 400 statues remain today. Cave 6 in the western area: There is a cross-legged Maitreya (Figure 2), 3.5 meters high, carved during the Northern Wei Dynasty, an early image of Maitreya, with long cheeks, long eyebrows, thin eyes, a high nose, and thin lips. Caves 6 to 2 are connected. Cave 5: Inside is a national treasure-level Wei stele, the Yuanjing Statue Stele (Figure 4), which is valuable because the characters carved on it are standard Wei script, and the carved characters are like brush writing. Caves 2 to 4 have some remaining murals and Buddha statues, such as male flying deities (Figures 5 to 7). Cave 1: The largest central square pagoda-shaped cave from the Northern Wei Dynasty (Figure 9), the most exquisite cave in Wanfo Cave. There are 13 Buddha statues (Figure 10): vertical three Buddhas (past Buddha, present Buddha, future Buddha), horizontal three Buddhas (Medicine Buddha, Shakyamuni, Amitabha), three-body Buddha: three identities of Shakyamuni (Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, Dharmakaya), four-faced Buddha (Tang Dynasty). Highlights of the eastern area: 1. Smiling Buddha (Figure 12), generally, Buddha statues have very few expressions, and this smiling expression is a highlight. 2. Esoteric Buddhism Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokitesvara (Figure 14), late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Each hand has an eye, reminding us that we should not be all talk and no action, but should combine action with vision. Dry-handed Avalokitesvara statues are relatively common, but Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokitesvara statues are rare. 3. Cliff carvings: Han Zhen Statue Stele inscription (Figure 13). 4. Thousand-year-old Bodhi tree (Figure 15): 1,500 years old, seven trees from the same root, with a spring underneath (Tang King Holy Water).