Longmen Grottoes
Most sculpture before the official rejection of Buddhism in 845 was religious, and a vast amount was destroyed during the Tang period itself, with most of the rest lost in later periods. There were many bronze and wooden sculptures, whose style is best seen in the survivals in Japanese temples. Monumental sculpture in stone, and also terracotta, has survived at several complexes of rock-cut temples, of which the largest and most famous are the Longmen Grottoes and the Mogao Caves (at Dunhuang), both of which were at their peak of expansion during the Tang. The best combined "the Indian feeling for solid, swelling form and the Chinese genius for expression in terms of linear rhythm ... to produce a style which was to become the basis of all later Buddhist sculpture in China."