Longmen Grottoes opens new Buddhist cave

Longmen Grottoes in Central China's Henan province opened another of its caves to the public on Thursday, giving them the opportunity to see a complete set of 29 arhat statues created during the rule of a Buddhist Chinese empress. The life-sized statues are among the finest and most well-preserved arhat sculptures of the Tang Dynasty. The arhats, who are enlightened Buddhist saints extricated from mundane suffering, are seen in various positions from meditation to debating, displaying facial expressions including anger, content and devotion. The temple, known as the Royal Cave Temple, is rarely opened to the public in the past 63 years in order to best preserve the artifacts, which have great artistic and research values.