Fengxiansi Cave in the Digital Narrative

12 kms south of Luoyang City in Henan province, Longmen Grottoes mark the milestone of the Chinese royal Buddhist cave temples since the Taiho era of the Emperor Hsiaowenti of the Northern Wei in China, 459AD. Among thousands of deities and caves, the Locana Buddha and the pairing deities of Fengxiansi Cave accomplished during Empress Wu’s regime in 675AD, symbolize the mixture of ideology among royalty, politics, and belief. The representative image of the site - both colossal and volumetric - also depicts the future Buddha and Mesiaah in the thought. Unfortunately, the constant looting last century caused huge loss and damages to the sites and works. Persistent efforts are made by the collaborations of academia, global museums and local institutions to bring the overseas heritage back to the home soil by their digital doubles. Inspired by the joint efforts of the forerunners in the digital restoration, this paper focuses on the challenges, former digital restoration projects, and further possibilities of the virtual reinterpretations of the site through the digital heritage imaging.