|
Caves or grottoes are the oldest form of the Buddhist architecture.
They are also known as the rock-cut monasteries, which were
hewn from the cliffs and rock walls of the valleys. The Buddhist
caves traces back their beginning around 100 BCE. In India,
the most significant cave is Ajanta caves, near modern Aurangabad,
Maharashtra. The Indian Buddhist monks carried this art of
cave hewing to China, where the earliest cave temples were
built in the 4th century in Dunhuang or Tun-Huang, which were
further decorated with relief carvings, paintings and stone
images of the Buddha or the Bodhisattvas.
|
