The Tang dynasty was the most intensive period of carving of grottoes and statues at Longmen. In the early 7th century, after the Tang dynasty was founded, Buddhism revived on the Central Plains, and carving of statues at Longmen became intensive, especially during the reigns of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, when the statues at Longmen became unprecedentedly perfect in terms of scale, theme, technique and so forth. The most important representative work from this period is the large statues in the Fengxian Temple, where the niches, more spacious than those from the Northern Wei dynasty, and the statues, were carved into a cliff, appearing extremely majestic and exquisite.