Where did religious sculpture originate?

Religious sculpture is a sculpture with religious teachings, stories, figures and legends as its theme. Buddhist sculpture is the highest achievement of ancient religious sculpture in China. The existing Buddhist sculptures, represented by cave temple sculptures, are distributed in Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places 100. Among them, Dunhuang Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes and Longmen Grottoes are world-renowned.

Dunhuang Grottoes are the general name of Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu Province. It includes the Mogao Grottoes, the West Thousand-Buddha Cave and the Yulin Grottoes, of which the Mogao Grottoes are the largest. According to reports, the Dunhuang Grottoes were built in the second year of Jianyuan before Qin Dynasty (AD 366), and continued to be built for more than 1,000 years in Yuan Dynasty. There were 1000 grottoes in the Tang Dynasty. There are statues in the cave, the walls and ceiling are covered with murals, and there is a wooden structure building in front of the cave, which integrates architecture, painted sculptures and murals to form a resplendent and colorful Buddhist world. There are 492 caves in the past dynasties, with more than 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 3,000 colored sculptures. Since the Western Han Dynasty, when Zhang Qian was introduced to the Western Regions, Dunhuang has become a transportation hub between the East and the West, and it is the meeting place of Indian Gandhara culture, Greek culture and China Central Plains culture. Therefore, Dunhuang Grottoes are not only a treasure house of ancient culture and art in China, but also a treasure house of ancient culture and art in the world.

Dunhuang Grottoes have more than 24 painted sculptures15 pieces and more than 0/000 murals (reliefs) from Wei to Song. Among them, 670 colorful sculptures in Tang Dynasty are the pinnacle of Dunhuang colorful sculptures in terms of artistic maturity and perfect combination of painting and sculpture. The colored sculptures in the Tang Dynasty vividly show the kindness and generosity of the Buddha, the gentleness and dignity of the Bodhisattva, the intelligence and piety of the disciples, and the majesty of the heavenly king. Rich and dignified characters, moderate proportion, natural clothing lines, and harmonious and unified Fucai Yan Li. It is a China-style Buddhist sculpture that is summed up from life and created according to the requirements of the development of Buddhism.