Viewing page 400 of 469

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[underlined]] Chapter XVII. [[/underlined]] 361-a.

Buddhist sculptured grottoes of the T'ien Lung Shan 天龍山, the "Heavenly Dragon Mountains". These caves lay rather over a sco^[[r]]e of miles southwest of the provincial capital, high up in the hills, in an isolated and secluded spot, difficult of access but commanding a superb view in all directions save the [[strikethrough]] north [[/strikethrough]] east (see pl [[strikethrough]] s [[/strikethrough]] . [[strikethrough]] XXXVI and CXXXVII [[/strikethrough]] ^[[47, figs. 1 and 2).]] The early Buddhists in the Far East evidently had a fine flair for the selection of beautiful and romantic sites for the erection of their temple-monasteries.
   The grottoes were said to date in the main from the Northern Ch'i Dynasty, or in other words from the middle of the 6th century A.D. They were few in number, and the state of preservation in which we found them was disappointing, even after the state of disrepair and dilapidation that we had seen at Lung Mên, in Honan, or at Yung Kang, in/ [[insertion]] northern [[/insertion]] Shansi. They had been excavated in the face of a cliff of soft, friable sandstone that had weathered very badly; and, worse still, they showed innumerable evidences of recent and deliberate vandalism. In nearly all cases the heads had been ruthlessly chiseled away from the statues---for sale to art dealers in Peking, we were told. The only portions of the carvings that remained in anything like an intact condition (allowing, of course, for natural erosion and weathering) were certain [[strikethrough]] Apsaras [[/strikethrough]] Apsarases or "angels" and other Buddhist [[underlined]] motifs [[/underlined]], carved in relief in the ceilings of the grottoes. These figures still displayed traces of the grace and artistic genius and mastery of technique which we know characterized the period (a transitional one between the North Wei and the T'ang); but they were traces only. We left the site with feelings of regret that such relics of a really great epoch should thus be ex-