After visiting the Tiantai Mountain Grottoes, which are illuminated by the ancient snow of Tianti Mountain, on October 18, the interview group of the "Millennium Grottoes Ingenuity Inheritance" online theme activity continued to walk along the Hexi Corridor and walked into the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes located in Zhangye Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, to feel the humanistic charm of the most beautiful grottoes in Qilian Mountain.
The Horseshoe Temple is named after the legendary heavenly horses who drink water here and have horseshoe prints. The legendary heavenly horseshoe traces are still in the horseshoe hall of Puguang Temple, becoming the treasure of the town temple.
As a group of grottoes that stretch in the Qilian Mountains, the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes include 7 parts, including the Horseshoe North Temple, the South Temple, the Thousand Buddha Caves, the Upper Guanyin Cave, the Middle Guanyin Cave, the Lower Guanyin Cave, and the Golden Pagoda Temple, with a total of more than 70 caves. The grottoes are distributed on the red sandstone cliff wall of the horseshoe mountain, the nearest distance between each other is 2 kilometers, the farthest is more than 20 kilometers, the grottoes are staggered, echo each other, and integrate with the Qilian Mountain.
The Thousand Buddha Caves of the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes are excavated on an unusually steep red sandstone wall, and the cave niches are naturally divided into three sections: south, middle and north according to the shape of the mountain. There are more than 10 existing caves and 9 numbered caves. Among them, there is a group of huge stone statues of one Buddha and two disciples in Cave No. 6 of Thousand Buddha Caves, these three statues are very well preserved, even the traces of chiseling are as new, and there is no defect at all.
The landmark building of the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes Group is the No. 3 Cave of the Horseshoe North Temple, also known as the "Thirty-three Days", which is known as the great tectonic form in the history of Chinese grottoes. The grotto is built on the largest cliff of Horseshoe Mountain, which is 60 meters high. The grotto is shaped according to the mountain, the cave is dug along the wall, there are 21 cave niches, arranged as 7 layers, the outside is the eaves of the cave that are not connected to each other, there are dark passages inside to communicate, the eaves of the cave are reduced layer by layer from bottom to top, overlapping into a huge pagoda shape. Open a big niche in the middle of each cave, there are stone clay statues of Buddha in it, and the four walls remain Yuan, the Ming Dynasty's shadow sculpture thousand Buddhas and murals.
The most desirable for tourists is the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes. The Jinta Temple Grottoes are known as "the sculpture world in the depths of Qilian Mountain", and are world-famous for the large-scale high-flesh sculpture flying music that is unique in the national grottoes. It is a Buddhist cave that hangs high on the stone wall of the mountainside, and there are only two caves side by side, east and west, about 100 meters above the ground, and the 240 stone steps are the heavenly path to the art hall.
The most amazing thing about the east cave of the Golden Pagoda Temple is the dancing high meat carving flying into the sky. They are in a "V" shape, most of their bodies leaning out of the niche, as if they are about to come out of the wall at any time, leading sentient beings, with childlike innocent and bright smiles on their faces, and the bodhisattvas at the top also leaning out one after another, as if watching the joys and sorrows of the world. This kind of statue model is the high flesh carving, which is unique in the mainland grottoes, and can be called the peerless treasure of grotto art, which has attracted the attention of the academic community.
"The core resources of the Horseshoe Temple Scenic Area not only have exquisite grotto art and magnificent Qilian scenery, but also create a broad and profound history and culture and unique folk customs. As the core resource of the Horseshoe Temple Scenic Area, the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes need to be developed and utilized in the protection. She Zhanlin, director of the Management Committee of the Horseshoe Temple Scenic Area, said.
The Horseshoe Temple Grottoes are a vital historical and cultural treasure on the Silk Road, and an outstanding representative of the early grottoes in the mainland. These grotto works not only have high artistic value, but also carry the development process of human civilization, and also witness the prosperity and cultural exchanges of the ancient Silk Road. For thousands of years, the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes have stood majestically in the forest of grotto art, telling the world about the great changes in the vicissitudes of history, and there are still many stories waiting for us to explore and discover.
New Gansu · Daily Gansu Net reporter Cao Xu