There are many good reasons to visit China, and many interesting sites to see, but none is more extraordinary than the Yungang Caves in Datong.

The temple/monastery comprises 53 grottos with more than 51,000 stone bas reliefs and figures of the Buddha carved out of a living mountain. They range from thumb-size to a 56-foot colossus. The visitor’s eye is dazzled by the multitudes: sitting Buddhas and standing Buddhas, thoughtful Buddhas and smiling Buddhas, Buddhas of every mood and description. They are the oldest stone carvings in China.

During its long history, China has had many capitals. More than 1,500 years ago, Datong was the honored city. Its border location in the northern part of Shanxi Province, a notch south of Inner Mongolia, made it a convenient meeting place for many nationalities to exchange goods and ideas. A splendid city and an important cultural center, Datong prospered until eclipsed by newer cities.

Today this ancient capital, barely 170 miles northwest of Beijing, is once again attracting visitors from all over the world. They come to see the remnants of Datong’s illustrious past: the rare, perfectly preserved nine-dragon screen from the Ming Dynasty in the center of the commercial district; the ancient Hyayan Monastery, a treasure among China’s few remaining large wood Buddhist temples; but first and foremost, they come to experience the wonder of the Yungang Caves.

In the first century, Buddhism made its way from India to China, where it flourished. It became the state religion during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and in 460 A.D. work began on a temple/monastery complex to sanctify the Buddha, The Enlightened One. For the next three decades, monks and slaves labored alongside each other with simple hand tools. Together they honeycombed the sandstone mountain and filled countless niches with carvings that illustrate the philosophical concept of the “thousand Buddhas,” symbolizing the Buddha’s omnipresence through time and space.

The mountain turned temple is awesome. It is all the more astonishing because the neighboring landscape is peppered with dreary coal mines. Over the centuries, the region’s fortunes have wavered. Datong is now an industrial center of more than 1 million people, important for producing coal. Situated on the Loess Plateau, about 3,900 feet above sea level, the old capital is sometimes referred to as “a sea of coal.” Convoys of coal-laden trucks and swarms of bicycles clog the flat road to the mountain.

Once out of the city, however, the traffic thins considerably and the Wuzhou Hills ripple into view. Stone watch towers that have guarded China’s northern border for millennia are silhouetted against the horizon like chess pieces. Amid such spare surroundings, the temple full of Buddhas surprises with fanciful color and vitality. The mountain seems inaccurately named, Yungang, which means “cloudy hill.” Yet, despite the coal mines, the sky is cloudless. Sunbeams dance on the monastery’s tiered roofs, feathered like great wings with brilliant blue tiles.

Although the temple is a religious shrine, the imaginative animal masks that ornament the monastery’s facade look down on hurly-burly that calls to mind not a place of worship but a festival. Small arts and antiques shops entertain a steady stream of shoppers. Along the path, child-sized wood chairs accommodate patrons who dine upon local noodle and meat specialties at makeshift restaurants.

Yungang is a feast for all of the senses. The restaurants’ braziers launch fragrant aromas into the air. Musky incense wafts from the caves and laces the soft breezes. Chimes from temple bells, fragile as soap bubbles, sail the air.  Oblivious of distractions, wizened monks -- their heads shaved, twig-like bodies draped in blue or brown robes, legs wrapped in matching cloth, feet clad in sandals – pause before the Buddhas. Around them, young parents, some in jeans and western clothes, dote on their one beautifully dressed toddler. School children in Young Pioneer outfits – black slacks or skirts, white blouses, and blazing red neckerchiefs – scamper over the rough stone steps. Some visitors picnic on the trampled ribbon of grass. Others pose for photographs in front of the caves.

The playful mood shifts at the threshold to the first cave. Thick stone walls barricade outside sound and sunlight. It takes a moment to recover from the sudden sensory deprivation, just long enough for the spirituality of the space to descend. The dimly-lit cave resembles a primitive cathedral. Pale light filters down from what seems like an open clerestory window. In fact, that aperture near the top of the mountain was the original entrance. Workmen, hacking downwards, hollowed out the massive chamber and created the present entry.

A huge Buddha occupies the cave’s shadowy center. Following the path where ancient holy men once trod, visitors may circle the statue, passing through a 15-foot- long tunnel at the rear of the grotto. Cool, dark and eerie, the tunnel was formerly used for religious rituals. Voices are funneled through it to the cave’s high ceiling where they reverberate like a mystical mantra.

Many of the caves are in amazingly fine condition – jade green paint, gilt, yellows and pinks are still distinct. A bas relief recounts the life of Sakyamuni, who became the Buddha. Like frames of film around the cave, the frieze’s small oblong scenes unfold the story of royal prince who renounced material pleasure in favor of a higher calling. In so doing, he attracted disciples who ordained him, The Enlightened One.

Yungang’s caves are famous for their depictions of the Buddha. But other celestial beings abide here, too. There are minutely detailed bodhisattvas – disciples who have elected to forego nirvana in order to save others – and arhats – disciples who have achieved total ecstasy.

Some of the caves are guarded by stone soldiers; others are covered with exuberant designs painted on walls and ceilings.

The international exchange of ideas in ancient Datong is reflected in the cave art. Among the foreign influences are weapons, lions and beards from Persia and Byzantium; tridents and curling acanthus leaves from Greece; draperies and head dresses from India. Sometimes the cultures are combined, as in Cave 8, which features a Vishnu seated on a bull, a Shiva and a guardian bearing a trident.

The most famous statue, and among the oldest, is the 48-foot-tall seated Buddha in Cave 20. Wind and water have eroded the cave along with the timber facade that once protected the finely proportioned giant. Now only a stone ledge visor shields his beautiful almond eyes from the sun.

Day and night, the Buddha sits as he has through the centuries, in quiet contemplation, admired by visitors who come from all over the world.