Mogao Cave 96

Mogao Cave 96 was built during early Tang Dynasty (617-704AD). The well-known Nine-Storeyed Temple for this cave is the Symbol of the Mogao Grottoes and there is a 34. 5-meter high Great Buddha Image.
Historical materials suggest that this cave was originally built as a four-storeyed and double-eaved construction in the Yanzai 2nd year (695AD) of the Tang dynasty. It was changed into a five-storeyed one before the 9th century and was restored during the Song, Western Xia and Qing dynasties. In the Republic of China, it was changed into a nine-storeyed temple against the cliff surface. When Landon Warner came here in 1924, he took a photo of the head of the sculpture through the trees because the top layer had collapsed. This large Buddha sculpture, with a round face and wave-like usnisa, is characteristic of the Early Tang style. Between 1928-1935, local people restored the five-storeyed temple into a nine-storeyed one and repainted the whole large Buddha. In 2000, the Dunhuang Academy made excavations inside and outside the main hall. As the archaeological sites exhibited inside and to the north of the cave indicate, the temple construction of the Early Tang is 1. 5 meters below the present ground level. The great Buddha sculpture was made in a method used for stone-bodied and clay-stuccoed sculptures : to carve the body shape of the large Buddha out of the rock face at first, then to plaster, and finally to paint it in color. This 34. 5-meter-high image is a Maitreya Buddha seated in yizuo posture, which is related to the historical fact that Empress Wu Zetian ordered Xue Huaiyi and etc. To write the Commentary on the Grand Cloud Sutra and built Dayun Temple in every prefecture. Cave 96 is supposed to be the ancient Dayun Temple.