The wall paintings of the arhat, the saint in Buddhism, in the Yungang Grottoes, Datong city, Shanxi province [Photo / dt.gov.cn]

The Yungang Research Institute, in the city of Datong, Shanxi province, held a Yungang Grotto Cultural Exchange, on Nov 5, for Japanese and Chinese scholars to discuss the culture at the historical site of Yungang Grottoes, as well as the latest grotto research.

Present at the meeting were Yagi Haruki, a professor at Japan's University of Tsukuba, Li Meiyan, a professor at Taiwan’s Pingtung University of Education, and Wang Heng, of the Yungang Grotto Research Institute, and six other scholars who described their research topics, which covered the philosophical Zen concepts of the grottoes, their architectural style, the paintings of figures on the walls, and the evolution of the grottoes throughout history.

Zhang Zhuo, the president of the research institute, in addressing the meeting, noted that there is lack of research on the architectural and aesthetics of the grottoes and suggested that the researchers explore the areas of architectural and decoration to present a much clearer, more detailed image of the grottoes. The Japanese expressed a great deal of interest in the preservation of the site, considering it partly their responsibility.