Located 13 km south of Luoyang, Henan Province, the Longmen Grottoes are concentrated on the east and west cliffs of the Yishui River. The construction work started on the grottoes around the year 493, during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), and continued for the next 400 years. In total there are 2,345 caves and niches, housing more than 100,000 statues of Buddha, Bodhisattvas and Arhats, together with 2,840 inscribed stone tablets. The rich collections of statues and figures, most of which can be dated, facilitate the study of the history of Chinese sculpture with precise data. The Longmen Grottoes was included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in November, 2000.

Located in the Xianjue Temple, the Statue of Vairocana (the Buddha of Great Enlightenment) started construction in 672 and was completed four years later. It is an exemplary piece with a height of 17.14 m and altogether 14 statues, the opencast niche of largest-scale among all Longmen grottoes.