The Evolution of Worship Space in the Yungang Grottoes under the Influence of the Silk Road

With the spread of Buddhism, cave temples, originated from India, were introduced to Central Asia via the Silk Road, and then to mainland China. This foreign religious architecture took root in China and completed the process of gradual Sinicisation. The worship space defines the core of the cave temples architectural space. This article takes the Yungang Grottoes as an example to explore the evolution of Buddhist worship spaces. Indian Buddhist architecture has produced two most basic forms of worship spaceright-hand space and prostration spacewhereas in Central Asia, Buddhist architecture has undergone great changes in style, but the basic prototype of the worship space is still composed of Indian Buddhist principles: it still follows the two worship spaces of right rotation and prostration. In the Yungang Grottoes, the two worship space have been influenced by both native India and Western Central Asia, combining with the characteristics of the Han Dynasty to develop and evolve.