Tenryu Mountain Cave

The caves are located 17 km southwest of Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, China. They were explored by Sekino Tadashi in 1918 (Taisho 7), followed by Tokiwa Daijo in 1920 and Tanaka Shunitsu in 1922. The caves were excavated into a white sandstone mountain, and are said to have a total of 24 caves, divided into left and right peaks with a valley in the middle. The origin of the excavation of the Tianlongshan Grottoes is unclear, but Taiyuan (Jin'yang) was the home of Gao Huan of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and even after his son Emperor Wenxuan (reigned 550-559) called the dynasty Northern Qi and moved its capital to Ye, Taiyuan continued to occupy an important position as a secondary capital. Therefore, the Tianlongshan Grottoes contain relatively old caves, such as Caves 2 and 3, which date back to the Eastern Wei period, and Caves 10 and 16, which are thought to belong to the Northern Qi period. Caves 1 and 8 on the left side of the mountain have inscriptions on their outer walls that read "Kaihuang" or "Year of Jiachen" (thought to be the 4th year of Kaihuang in the Sui period, or 584), and so these two caves are presumed to date to the Sui period. The other caves were excavated during the Tang period, but the stone statues in the Tang caves are rare in the history of Chinese Buddhist statues in terms of realism. In the Tang caves, shallow niches are generally carved into three sides of the cave, and Buddha statues are generally carved into them. The Tianlongshan Grottoes were heavily destroyed in the 1920s, and many of the stone statues were exported overseas, with the most notable ones disappearing.

[Takeji Iijima]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、山西省太原市の南西17キロメートルにある石窟。1918年（大正7）に関野貞(ただし)が踏査し、その後、1920年に常盤大定(ときわだいじょう)が、1922年に田中俊逸が探査を行っている。石窟は白い砂岩質の岩山を開削したもので、中央に谷を挟んで左峰と右峰に分かれて合計24窟が存在するといわれている。天竜山石窟の開削の由来は明らかでないが、太原（晋陽(しんよう)）は東魏(とうぎ)の高歓(こうかん)がいた所で、その子の文宣帝（在位550～559）が北斉(ほくせい)を称し、鄴(ぎょう)に都したのちも、太原は別都として重要な位置を占めていた。したがって天竜山石窟には、東魏時代までさかのぼる第2・第3洞、あるいは北斉に属すると考えられる第10・第16洞など比較的古い石窟が存在する。左峰の第1・第8洞は外壁に碑形があり、隋(ずい)の「開皇云々」、あるいは「歳次甲辰年」（隋開皇4年＝584年と考えられる）の銘記があり、両窟は隋代のものと推定されている。その他の窟は唐代の開削であるが、唐窟の石像は中国仏像史上まれな写実性をもつ仏像である。唐窟では窟内三方に浅い龕(がん)を設け、そこに仏像を彫ったものが一般的である。天竜山石窟は1920年代に大破壊を受け、多くの石像が海外へ流出し、めぼしい石像は消滅している。

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