The Tianlongshan Grottoes Museum in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, is on display online from February 22 to 28. The museum uses 3D printing technology to recreate the original grottoes where the Buddha head is located at a 1:1 ratio, trying to make the audience feel the historical charm of the grottoes.

The Tianlongshan Grottoes in Taiyuan were dug from the late Northern Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties and are representative Buddhist grottoes in the Central Plains. In the 1920s, driven by the Japanese antique dealer "Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce", the Tianlongshan Grottoes were robbed on a large scale, and almost all the fine cultural relics were lost overseas. On the evening of February 11, 2021, the master Buddha of the north wall of Cave 8 of Tianlongshan Grottoes, which has been lost overseas for nearly a century, debuted at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Shortly thereafter, the Buddha Head returned to Tianlong Mountain.

Today, visitors to Tianlong Mountain see caves mostly with mutilated statues and chiseled walls. It is impossible to imagine what the caves looked like in their glory days. However, the Tianlongshan statues seen in foreign museums are dissociated from the grottoes, unable to perceive the artistic conception between the grottoes and the forest springs and mountains.

Yu Hao, director of Tianlongshan Grottoes Museum, said that after the return of the Buddha head, the museum used the latest 3D printing technology to restore the original grottoes in a 1:1 scale. While appreciating the Buddha head, the audience can also feel its original appearance in the grottoes.

In the online broadcast, the text and pictures in the exhibition hall introduced the past of the caves one by one according to the logic of the loss, protection and recovery of Tianlongshan cultural relics.

In the exhibition hall, the Buddha head statue has a low bun, plain hairstyle, no split hairline, round face, eyes down, concave mouth, smiling. Under the light, the Buddha's head radiates mysterious and noble light.

Mr. Yu said the Tianlongshan grottoes were one of the most damaged areas in China. Up to now, more than 160 pieces of Tianlongshan grottoes are known to have been lost around the world. The return of the Buddha head mentioned above will help guide all sectors of society to contribute and promote the return of more lost cultural relics in Tianlongshan and even the country.