Tianlong Mountain Grottoes Architectural Art

The grottos of Tianlong Mountain, an artistic achievement which was made during the period from the Wei, Jin and the Southern and Northern dynasties to Sui and Tang dynasties, are typical of the construction of that time with a special and distinctive style which attaches high value to those constructions. This paper is aimed to study the shape and structure, construction features and historical status of the grottos through a comprehensive analysis on the pictures and document literature on the grottos.This paper mainly includes the following five parts:the first part is about the significance of the architectural art study of the Grottos of Tianlong Mountain and the situation of the current research. The second part consists of three smaller points, first the natural circumstances and the development features of Buddhism of Taiyuan during that period will be introduced to pave the way for the architectural art study of the grottos; second, a generalization of the grottos will be introduced to exactly reflect the fundamental conditions of them in terms of why they were prosperous, the backgrounds under which they were dug and how their location was chosen; third, the shape and structure and the internal layout and distribution of the grottos will be discussed, their features and origin will be summarized and their classification by the building time will be summarized according to existing materials. The third part is about the analysis of the architectural features of the grottos. The grottos of Tianlong Mountain have witnessed5dynasties and can be classified into4kinds of grottos in terms of their building time. According to specific materials, the knowledge that the architectural features and architectural art of the grottos of each period are different to a certain degree can be elicited. In that part, the writer mainly analyze their construction from the details like columns, cave eaves, bucket arch and carving decoration. Comprehensive analysis can help people understand different architectural techniques and art of different dynasties. The fourth part is about a summary of the distinctive architectural features of the grottos and an extrapolation that how the Buddhist architectural form developed from imitation from the exotic to localization and crimination. The fifth part is about a discussion over the historical value of the grottos. The last part is the conclusion, which is to summarize the whole content of this paper and mainly to highlight the architectural value of the grottos. This research further deepens the art study of the Grottos of Tianlong Mountain in China and provides some valuable references.