buddha in final transcendence, or parinirvana,as part
of the original construction. Bamiyan and the neigh-
boring sites of Kakrak and Foladi are also noted for a
distinctive school of painting that combined Indian,
Sassanian Persian, and other elements.
From the fourth to the eighth century, over two
hundred caves were constructed at the Central Asian
site of Kizil near the city of Kucha in what is now the
Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region of China. Kizil
and related sites such as Kumtura (about a hundred
caves) and Kizilgara (forty-six caves) were patronized
by the rulers of Kucha, a prominent oasis kingdom on
the northern branch of the Silk Road. Many of the
caves have a unique structure consisting of a front
chamber linked to a back chamber by two small ar-
cades. Sculptures and paintings in shades of gold, blue,
and green cover the wall. Preaching scenes or encap-
sulated representations of jatakastories are standard.
Some of the earliest representations of the transcen-
dent Buddha Vairocana are also found at these sites.
Caves found farther east in the Turfan area include
those at Toyok and Bezeklik. Both have suffered sub-
stantial depredations.China has the largest numbers of cave sanctuaries
in Asia, and several of the most famous are found in
Gansu, a province in the northwest with links to the
Silk Road that played a seminal role in the introduc-
tion of Buddhism to China. Dating from the fourth to
the fourteenth century, the nearly five-hundred deco-
rated caves at Mogao and those at related sites near the
city of DUNHUANGprovide invaluable information for
the development of Chinese Buddhist art. Some of the
earliest caves have a pillar in the center thought to de-
rive from the stupas in early Indian construction. Later
chambers are open or have low-lying platforms at the
back. Early imagery includes sculptures of buddhas
and bodhisattvas and paintings of past-lives stories.
Representations of paradises and illustrations based on
prominent texts are found in caves dating from the
sixth to the eighth century, while those excavated in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries contain semi-
nal imagery for later Tibetan art. Comparable devel-
opments are found in the Yulin grottoes, the Western
Thousand Buddha Caves (Xiqianfodong), and the East-
ern Thousand Buddha Caves (Dongqianfodong) in the
same region. The Binglinsi caves near Lanzhou and the
Maijishan caves near Tianshui, which also contain
both paintings and sculptures, are among the larger
sites in Gansu.The fifty-three caves at YUN’GANG in Shansi
province are renowned for the five colossal sculptures
that dominate caves 16 through 20. Built in the late
fifth century under the patronage of the Northern
Wei (386–534) rulers, the Yun’gang caves share the
iconography found in contemporaneous structures
at Dunhuang, but they contain no paintings, only
sculptures.LONGMENnear Luoyang in Hebei province was be-
gun in the early sixth century. Longmen houses over
two thousand caves, some large, some small, as well as
thirty-six hundred inscriptions. About one-third of the
caves were constructed during the Northern Wei and
the rest during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The Feng-
xiansi, which was begun under the rule of the Tang
emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683) and finished around
675, is the most famous at the site. Four guardians, two
bodhisattvas, and two monks attend a fifty-foot-high
seated buddha. The figures are noted for elegant andCAVESANCTUARIES
The interior of cave 19, one of the twenty-six caves of Ajanta,
constructed in the late fifth century, at Maharashtra, India. The pil-
lars and the stupa with the figure of the Buddha in relief were
carved from the living rock. © Lindsay Hebberd/Corbis. Repro-
duced by permission.