Cave of a Thousand Buddhas

Thousand Buddhas is a monument of Buddhist art, a whole cultural heritage of China. It is located 33 kilometers from the city of Jinan in Shandong province. Its area is 63 meters, it includes more than 210 statues and 43 cave paintings. Once near the cave was the Shentong Temple, which was popularly called the “Supernatural Force”. Today, it has become a ruin.

The very first Buddha sculpture in the cave was carved by Sha Dun, a 70-year-old monk. This happened in 619 BC. 25 years later, two more statues were created by the old monk Ming Di. When he felt that his life was nearing the end, he donated money to carve new sculptures.

These were the times of the Tang dynasty, which was against the development of Taoism. The monk took great risks creating Buddhist statues. But his faith was unshakable and the purpose of his creations was to pray, not to express his political views.

Despite all the persecution by the state authorities, the carving work did not stop. It was continued by other Buddhists after the death of Sha Dun and Ming Di. To date, the Cave of a Thousand Buddhas has become the largest collection of Buddhist sculptures, statues of Chinese officials and monks in Shandong Province.