Amy McNair

I've read this book twice (once several years back and now as I embark in a few days on a visit to Longmen) and although it is NOT a guidebook, I cannot think of a finer text to read before visiting the famous Longmen Grottoes 20 km south of Luoyang, one of China's two central ancient capital cities (the other being Xi'an). It's a guidebook for the intelligent traveller who wants to know more than 'what' they're looking at; it's for those curious souls who also want to know 'why' something was created and what the meaning was behind it.

This was probably not the book's intention--it is what its title claims it to be, a study of the donors of Longmen based upon the inscriptions and statuary found in these important medieval caves in Central China begun in the late 5th century during the N. Wei Dynasty, and finally abandoned in 676, during the Tang. Along the way are the stories of the emperors and their empresses, advisors, consorts and eunuchs who also became sponsors of Longmen, along with the religious societies (known as yiyi) usually composed of commoners.

The caves are fascinating, not only for their array of a variety of religious statuary from different eras and styles (Gandharan, Gupta era, N. Wei, Sui and Tang) but also for the history they tell of the region and the rise and fall of Buddhism in China.

Author McNair combines meticulous research (including personally counting the crumbling figures of group effigies) with the ability to tell a good story and the pages turn easily as one follows the site's history.

This would have merited 5 stars had it been a bit less repetitious, but perhaps McNair was only tactfully reminding readers of facts they may had forgotten in the intervening chapters, in which case, well done!… (més)