Shuiliandong Grottoes 水帘洞石窟

About Shuiliandong Grottoes

The complex is made up of four units — Shuiliandong, Lashao Temple, Qianfo Cave and Xiansheng Pool — and the China Gansu Net feature calls it an important cave-temple site on the eastern route of the Silk Road. Shuiliandong itself is a natural rock cave roughly 50 m high and over 20 m deep; the page explains the name by the water that runs down the cave lip in rain like a hanging curtain. The feature states that the complex was first built in the Northern Zhou and enlarged and repaired through the Five Dynasties, Song and Yuan, and counts seven temples, five terraces and twelve cultural-relic sites scattered in five groups within a few kilometres.

Buddhist wall paintings of the Northern Wei, Sui, Tang and Yuan survive on the Shuiliandong cliff face. At Lashao Temple, the feature describes the danxia landform on the hill and an open-air cliff relief of about 1,000 sq m with a main Buddha 42.3 m tall seated cross-legged on a square lotus pedestal; Xinhua, which dates the relief to 559 CE, records that it was cut into a concave cliff face over 150 m long and over 60 m wide. Neither cited page describes the Qianfo Cave or Xiansheng Pool units.

What to look for

• The natural cave at Shuiliandong, about 50 m high and over 20 m deep, with the water curtain that gives the site its name
• Northern Wei, Sui, Tang and Yuan Buddhist wall paintings on the Shuiliandong cliff face
• The open-air cliff relief at Lashao Temple: about 1,000 sq m on a concave face over 150 m long and over 60 m wide, with a main Buddha 42.3 m tall on a square lotus pedestal
• The danxia landform on the hill at Lashao Temple

Location & getting there

Getting to Shuiliandong Grottoes

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 水帘洞石窟 with 天水市 and 武山县.