龙游石窟的成因及遗产价值分析

龙游石窟位于浙江省西部金衢盆地中心,是中国南方罕见的红砂岩洞窟,其成因迄今尚未形成共识。持采石观点的既有研究主要从地质岩性、开采技术和石料需求等方面进行了探讨。本文以龙游县域乃至浙西地区为空间范围,在充分查阅文献与实地考察的基础上,从区域历史、红砂岩采石传统、区域地形、采石成本四个方面论证了龙游石窟作为历史时期采石遗迹的可能性和合理性。在此基础之上,文章分析了龙游石窟较之相关世界遗产项目所具备的比较特点,认为龙游石窟符合世界遗产的第(i)、(iv)和(v)条标准。

ANALYSIS OF THE FORMATIVE CAUSE AND HERITAGE VALUE OF THE LONGYOU GROTTO

The Longyou Grotto, locating in the center of Jinqu Basin, west of Zhejiang Province, is a rare type of red sandstone grotto in southern China. Its formative cause is still debated, which limited its further conservation and possible utilization of the Grotto. Based on the adequate literature review and field works, this essay investigates the formative cause of the Longyou Grotto from a much wider study area, namely the Longyou County and even the western part of Zhejiang Province. The results show that: (1)There are plentiful records related to the Longyou Grotto and the history of utilization of red sandstone in local chronicles; (2) The spatial overlapping of the distribution of red sandstone and similar relics of quarry in the Longyou County indicates that there is a historical tradition of quarrying of red sandstone in this region; (3)The local micro-topography explains why some relics of quarry in the Longyou Grotto adopted the way of underground quarrying whilst some sites in other parts of the region took the way of open air quarrying; (4)Private land ownership in ancient China and consideration of cost-saving in quarrying makes it clear why most of caves in the Longyou Grotto have small outlet and bigger inner space. This paper analyzes the unique characteristics of the Longyou Grotto after comparing heritage properties characterized by its grottoes and related mining heritages in the World Heritage List. According to the criteria of world culture heritage in The Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, this paper finds out heritage values of the Longyou Grotto: The Longyou Grotto has an immense amount of work and represent a masterpiece of human creative genius; The underground quarrying and other techniques adopted in the formation of the Longyou Grotto have a lesser impact on local environment compared to the modern quarrying industry, which means that the Longyou Grotto is a fine example of sustainable resource and land utilization in ancient China.