Lesser-known grottoes - Wanfo Hall Grottoes

The grottoes are relatively small and can be visited together with the Fengguo Temple in Yixian County. The overall damage is quite severe, with few remaining, but you can still see the smile of the Buddha~ I have collected some information for reference. Wanfo Hall Grottoes, located on the north bank of the Daling River, 9 kilometers northwest of Yixian County, Liaoning Province, is the earliest and largest group of grottoes in Northeast China as of 2015. It is also the northernmost and easternmost group of grottoes in the Northern Dynasties of China. The Wanfo Hall Grottoes were built during the Northern Wei Dynasty. Due to years of natural weathering and lack of maintenance, most of the grottoes have been damaged and collapsed and no longer exist. It is hailed as a treasure trove of northern China's grotto sculpture art, and the Wanfo Hall Grottoes are also a scenic spot that integrates cultural and natural landscapes. It was designated as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 1988. The lower layer of Wanfo Hall Grottoes has 6 grottoes, arranged from east to west. Entering the first grotto, the door is engraved with the four big characters of 'Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere'. The grotto is square, about five meters high, each side is about one meter, there is a square stone pillar in the center, connected to the top of the grotto, the square stone pillar is full of fine carvings, the Buddha statue on the dust arch, the worshiper statue and the Buddha statue inside the upper Buddha, the attendant and the arc-shaped flower canopy, the born child, the flying sky on the top of the grotto, the thousand Buddha-style seated Buddha on the wall inside the door, are all typical mid-Northern Wei sculptures, with vigorous knife skills. The eastern area has seven grottoes, built in the third year of Jingming of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which were private grottoes built by Han Zhen and others, the envoys of the Yuyue Khitan, for blessings. The western area has a total of 9 grottoes, divided into two layers, the upper layer has 3 small grottoes, the stone carvings inside the grotto have been weathered and no longer exist. The inscription of the fifth grotto is an important historical material, and it was written by General Pingdong Yuanjing in 499 AD when the cliff was built, and it was rated as 'the best of all the steles of the Yuan and Wei Dynasties' by Kang Youwei in the late Qing Dynasty. There is a small round pagoda on the top of the grotto, built by the General of the Cavalry, Wang Kai, in the tenth year of Chenghua of the Ming Dynasty (1474 AD) to celebrate his mother's birthday. The first grotto in the western area is the largest, with three Buddhas carved on each of the east, west and north walls. The Buddha statues and the statues of the worshippers on the upper part of the square pillar in the center of the grotto. The four Buddha statues at the bottom were carved by later generations. The main statue of the sixth grotto is the cross-legged Maitreya. Yuanjing's statue inscription is carved on the south wall of the fifth grotto. There are 7 grottoes in the eastern area, and most of the statues have been weathered and no longer exist. The third grotto has a thousand-armed Guanyin and two attendant Bodhisattvas. Han Zhen's statue inscription is carved on the south wall of the fourth grotto.