The Longmen Caves are located outside the city of Luoyang, China, about 500 miles southeast of the modern-day capital in Beijing. Established in the late fifth century, the site consists of 2,345 caves, and over 100,000 individual Buddhist statues, ranging in height from a few inches to over 56 feet. For more than 250 years, Chinese Buddhists from all walks of life sponsored the addition of Buddhist statues and inscriptions to the site, most significantly from the late Northern Wei (386-534) through the Tang dynasty (618-907). Binyang Central Cave is one of the earliest at Longmen and a major monument of Chinese Buddhism. Begun around the year 501, it was commissioned by the youthful Emperor Xuanwu (483-515) and dedicated to his father, Emperor Xiaowen, who died in 499 at age thirty-three. The cave is one of the major monuments of Chinese Buddhism. MEasuring roughly 30 feet in each dimension, its principal image is 28-foot-high seated Buddha largly filling the back of the cave and accompanied by smaller standing figures—disciples, Buddhas, and bodhisattva—on either side. The exit wall contained some of the finest stone relief carvings of the era, including depictions of two imperial processions, and a number of stories from Buddhist scriptures. After cave-making was discontinued for nearly a thousand years, the Longmen site was "discovered" by foreign scholars in the late 1800s. The publication of their studies with photos attracted international attention to the artistic quality of the sculptures. The publications ultimately led to the looting of much of the site in the early part of the twentieth century. In response to demand from art dealers, collectors, and museums around the globe, local stonecutters removed countless works from the caves, often breaking them into numerous fragments in the process. Pieces from the greater Longmen complex can now be found scattered throughout the world. In Binyang Central Cave, several heads and large portions of the relief carvings were cut or burned out of the walls. Fragments from Binyang Central Cave now reside in museums in the US and Japan, as well as in storage at the Longmen Research Institute in China. Many shattered pieces are identifiable today with the evidence of historical photographs and rubbings taken of the reliefs before their removal.
Film production
Host of the Digital Restoration of the Empress Procession Project:
Longmen Grottoes Research Academy
Participating institutions and individuals:
3D Plastic Art Modern Technology Application Research Center, Xi'an Jiaotong University
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Center for the Art of East Asia, University of Chicago
General Counsel Shi Jiazhen
General Producer Jia Zhuofei
Project Coordinator Wang Jianhua
Producer Gao Junping
Chief Producer Hou Xintian
Producer Li Yang Yang Qian
Chief Director Hou Xintian
Director Wang Ye Wang Xiaoyi
Animation Video Jia Zhuofei Wang Xiaoyi
Chief Photographer Hou Xintian
Photographer Wang Ye Wang Xiaoyi Yang Qian Yang Songbai
Photographing Assistant Wang Ming Chen Junsheng
Post-production Director Wang Ye Wang Xiaoyi
Post-production Wang Ye
Produced by: Beijing Miaodao Dahua Communication Co., Ltd.
Sichuan Haofeng Miaodao Cultural Communication Co., Ltd.
文昭皇后礼佛图复原项目主持单位
龙门石窟研究院
项目参与机构
西安交通大学三维造型艺术现代技术应用研究中心
纳纳尔逊阿特金斯艺术博物馆 (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art)
芝加哥大学东亚艺术中心 (Center for the Art of East Asia The University of Chicago)