The Longmen Double Grotto is also called ’Double Cave’. it is situated at the foot of the middle-north section of the Western Hill of Longmen, the entrance facing the east and the bottom being about 2 m above the normal water level of the Yi River. The two grottoes stand side by sidt with a common corridor in front of them. Besides colossal Buddhas’ images and the Thousand Buddhas sculptured in the construction of the grottoes, 209 small niches, 2 stupa-shaped niches and 4 inscribed steles were added to them in later generations.The original stone stele recording the sculpture of the Buddhas’ images was lost and the small niches can be divided into seven groups belonging to five periods: the first period being between the reign of Qianfeng and that of Zongzhang (666—669 AD); the second, between the reign of Xianheng and that of Shangyuan (670—675); the third, between the reign of Yifeng and that of Cisheng (676—684); the fourth mainly belongs to the reign of Chuigong and that of Tianshou of the Wu Zhou Period (under Empress Wu getian, 685--700); and the fifth, from the first year of the restoration of Emperor ghongzong to the eighth year of the reign of Xuanzong (705—720). As regards the Buddhas’ images of the two grottoes themselves, they are of course earlier than the small niches. Their forms are close to those of the grottoes of the Jingshansi Temple that are believed to be completed between the reign of Xianqing (656—660) and that of Longshuo (661—663), but shghtly later than the latter. From this it can be referred that the construction of the Doublqe Grotto started in the reign of Longshuo and completed in that of Qianfeng, that is between 661 and 668 AD.Of the two grottoes, in the northern one are sculptured the Trikala Buddhas fluddhas of the Past, the Present and the Future); and in the southern one, Maitreya and the Thousand Buddhas. These images are all based on the Fa Hun 3ing (Saddharma-pundarika-sutra, or Lotus Sutra). It seems that the two grottoes are related to the Tian Tai Sect of Buddhism. In the small niches, most of the single statues seated cross-legged are Amitabha’s images ( the Fourth Dhyani Buddha) and most of the sculptures seated with legs one resting on another present Ksitigarbha (Bodhisattva). There are also sculptured Bhaisajyaguru with a medicine bowl in the hand, Maitreya and Ava- lokitesvara. The appearance of the images of supreme gods .in Taoism in the fifth year of The reign of Kaiyuan (717 AD) marks the cessatio of the creation of Buddhist sculptures.The twin grottoes are medium-sized; among the Tang Dynasty grottoes at Longmen built be. fore the reign of Xianheng (670--674), they are next in size only to the Qianxisi Temple grottoes. This indicates that their contributor of contributors were not ordinary people. The sculptures in them are an embodiment of aU the Buddhist art styles in the early Tang Dynasty from the reign of Zhengguan (627—649) to that of Longshuo (661—663) and their forms laid the foundation for the new sculpture styles of the age of Empress Wu Zetian and were doubt lessly models of Vairocana (First Dhyani Buddha)’s niche of the Fengxiansi Temple and the sculptures of the Wanfusi Temple.
