Gansu's low-key city is not prosperous enough, and there are few tourists so far.

When I was traveling in Lanzhou, I went to the Gansu Provincial Museum and saw several murals of the Northern Liang Dynasty. Those exotic Buddha statues impressed me deeply, even similar to some reliefs I saw when I was in india tourism. After reading some materials, I realized that these northern Liang murals originally came from Tiantai Mountain Grottoes in Wuwei, Gansu Province, and the statues of these northern Liang murals were influenced by Indian Buddhist art, which may indicate that Liangzhou Grottoes originated in India.

A few years later, I finally had the privilege of revisiting the Hexi Corridor. In addition to Jiayuguan and Zhangye in Dunhuang, Wuwei has also been added. Maybe I just want to punch in this extremely important China Grottoes-Tiantishan Grottoes.

Liangzhou (Wuwei, now a low-key fifth-tier city), located at the eastern end of Hexi Corridor, has attracted many eminent monks from the west to the east to preach here since ancient times, such as Kumarajiva and Dharmaksema, who translated scriptures here. Perhaps it was during the Northern Liang Dynasty that Liangzhou Buddhism reached its peak. Qu Mengxun, the main residence of Beiliang, moved to Liangzhou. Although the monarch likes to fight and kill, he strongly advocates Buddhism. He opened a grotto on the cliffs south of Liangzhou City. This is a royal grotto with a history of 1600 years. At the same time, it became the originator of China Grottoes, thus opening the grotto civilization in China.

Unfortunately, however, due to the construction of the reservoir, the historic Tiantai Mountain Grottoes had to be relocated protectively, and now most of them are empty. Of course, the relocation has also brought these cool murals back to the world.

First of all, let's take a look at the northern beam mural just mentioned, which was taken by March when he stopped at the Gansu Provincial Museum. This is a group of murals called Pot-painted Buddha statues.

Although the whole mural looks a little broken, the details of the picture can still be seen clearly. Bodhisattva's head has no crown, but is tied into a bun with a hair band. She has an oval face, big ears and big round earrings. The bridge of the nose is high and straight, with white on it, thin waist and wide shoulders, but the buttocks are extremely plump, like an Indian beauty who just flew from India.

Then, look at the painted sculptures of Tiantai Mountain in Tang Dynasty collected by Gansu Provincial Museum. We can see that the Bodhisattva's bun was tied very high and her face was slightly round, but it was not full in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. It can be seen that it should be colored sculptures in the early Tang Dynasty.

Having said these ancient cultural relics, we now begin our trip to Tiantai Mountain Grottoes. It's not smooth to get to Tiantai Mountain from downtown Wuwei, or we can get off halfway to Haxi and walk for 20 minutes. If it is more convenient, we might as well rent a car.

The scenery from Wuwei to Tiantishan Grottoes is very beautiful, and you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Qilian Mountain all the way, but the landform of digging Tiantishan Grottoes is very special. This is an open basin, surrounded by mountains, and the place near the north side is where the Tiantai Mountain Grottoes were dug.

The existing Tiantai Mountain Grottoes are mainly divided into three layers. There are mainly 10 caves in the west, and a large Buddhist shrine in the east, which is also the largest scenic spot in Tiantai Mountain Grottoes and the only well-preserved Buddhist shrine.

In this grotto, you can see the restored 23-meter-high Buddha statue, flanked by two shorter disciples and two bodhisattvas, and even two statues of King Kong, all of which have a strong Tang style. It is said that this giant Buddha was built by Princess Honghua in Tang Dynasty. The restored Buddha still smiles, and his right arm stretches forward, pointing to Moqi Mountain.

In addition to the restored giant Buddha and sculpture, murals painted in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China can be seen at the top of this cave niche, most of which are images of lions, elephants and other Swiss animals. After reading this cave niche, all the scenic spots in Tiantai Mountain Grottoes are almost gone. But this does not prevent me from loving this grotto. After all, the murals of Beiliang in the museum and the colored sculptures in the Tang Dynasty bear witness to its history as the originator of China Grottoes.