Who sponsored the excavation of the Buddha statue in Longmen Grottoes?

Excavation time: Tang Gaozong was excavated at the beginning. Empress Wu Zetian sponsored 20,000 crowns of pink money in the third year of Xianxiang (AD 672), which was completed in the second year of Shangyuan (AD 675).

Longmen Grottoes, located in Luoyang City, Henan Province, is the largest treasure house of stone carving art in the world, with the largest number of statues. It was rated as "the highest peak of stone carving art in China" by UNESCO, ranking first among caves in China. Now it is a world cultural heritage, a national key cultural relic protection unit and a national AAAAA-level tourist attraction.

Longmen was dug by Dayu when he was controlling water, and the legend of fish jumping over Longmen also happened here. Its grottoes began to be excavated during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty and finally ended in the late Qing Dynasty. After 10 dynasties and 1400 years of construction, it became the longest grotto in the world.

Longmen Grottoes are the only royal grottoes in the world, and most of them were built by royal nobles. After the news of the Lushena Buddha carved by Wu Zetian according to her appearance and manners and the construction of a paradise in Luo Yang Palace was introduced to Japan, Emperor Shengwu made a vow of "building for me" and established Dongda Temple in Nara. In addition, Emperor Xiaowen carved the Guyang Cave for Feng Taihou, Sun Yu's Buddha Cave for the Warrior Lan Ling, Binyang South Cave for Lee Tae's eldest grandson, Jingshan Temple for Wei Guifei, and Infinite Life Buddha for Tang Xuanzong Gao Lishi.

Longmen Grottoes make the grotto art present a trend of China, which is a "milestone" of the grotto art in China. It has also experienced the construction of Tianzhu, Silla, Tuhuoluo, Guo Kang and other countries, and discovered European patterns and ancient Greek stone pillars, making it the highest level of internationalization in the world.