Tiantishan Grottoes 天梯山石窟

About Tiantishan Grottoes

Some sculptures and murals were removed when the reservoir was built, while the great cave was protected by a barrier against the water. The surviving giant Buddha group and the cliff face should therefore be read alongside the story of relocation and conservation. This is a compact but significant stop on the Buddhist-art route through Liangzhou.

The caves were originally known as the Liangzhou Caves, a name recorded in the Jishenzhou Sanbao Gantong Lu (集神州三宝感通录). Carving began under the Northern Liang ruler Juqu Mengxun (沮渠蒙逊) between 412 and 439, and further caves were opened or rebuilt during the Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Western Xia and Yuan dynasties; by the Ming and Qing periods the site had become a Lama monastery. Only 16 caves, on three tiers, survived to the early 1950s.

Caves 1, 4, 17 and 18 date from the Northern Liang period; the rest follow Sui- and Tang-dynasty designs repaired in later centuries. The caves hold more than 100 sculptures and several hundred square metres of murals, along with early Chinese and Tibetan sutra manuscripts and Han- and Tang-dynasty silk paintings. Northern Liang murals depict thousand Buddhas, apsaras, bodhisattvas and heavenly kings; Tang-period murals add musicians, donor portraits and a thousand-armed Guanyin.

In 1994 the Peking University archaeologist Su Bai (宿白) concluded from fieldwork that Chinese cave-temple art originated at the Liangzhou Caves, proposing the scholarly concept of a “Liangzhou model,” of which Tiantishan is the surviving example. In 2001 the caves were designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level as one of China's earliest Buddhist grotto sites.

What to look for

• The monumental Buddha group in the great cave.
• The cliff and protective barrier beside the reservoir, showing the challenges of conserving the site.

Location & getting there

Getting to Tiantishan Grottoes

Approach through Dengshan Village in Zhangyi Town, south of Wuwei. Arrange a dedicated road transfer to the Tiantishan entrance beside the Huangyang River reservoir, rather than treating it as an urban Wuwei stop.