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About Xianfo Temple Grottoes
Xianfo Temple Grottoes (仙佛寺) are Buddhist figures carved into a cliff on the west bank of the You River (酉水) at Guankou village (关口村), about 7 km northeast of the seat of Laifeng County (来凤县) in Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (恩施土家族苗族自治州), Hubei.
Across the river to the east lies Longshan County (龙山县) in Hunan, facing the carvings from the opposite bank, and to the north the site borders Xuan'en County (宣恩县). Chinese Wikipedia describes the site as the only group of Tang-dynasty cliff carvings in the middle Yangtze region.
Carving started in the early Tang and went on into the high Tang, and later periods added more. Of the large niches, the northern one dates from the Five Dynasties and the rest from the Tang. Halls once stood in front of the cliff, among them a Great Buddha Hall (大佛殿) and a Guanyin Hall (观音堂), but they were destroyed in the 1960s, so what remains is the carved rock face itself. Hubei put the site on its first list of provincial protected monuments on 15 November 1956, under the name Xianfo Temple, and the State Council made it a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level (全国重点文物保护单位) on 25 May 2006, in the sixth batch, as Xianfo Temple Grottoes (仙佛寺石窟).
Four large niches survive, named for their positions: north, middle, south and a further niche on the south side. Together they hold 13 figures. The niche on the south side is also cut with 16 smaller niches, and a single small Buddha sits in each. The protected area set by the Hubei provincial government in 2015 runs from the middle of the river to 50 m beyond the top of the cliff, and north from the foot of a hillside stone stairway to a stone pagoda.
What to look for
- The four large niches on the cliff face, holding 13 carved figures
- The northern niche, the one large niche carved in the Five Dynasties rather than the Tang
- Sixteen small niches cut into the south-side niche, each with one small Buddha
- The stone stairway up the hillside and the stone pagoda north of the cliff
- The You River below, with Longshan County in Hunan on the far bank
Location & getting there
Getting to Xianfo Temple Grottoes
- Search for 仙佛寺 with 恩施土家族苗族自治州 and 来凤县.
Find Xianfo Temple Grottoes
仙佛寺 · 来凤县
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Opening hours, admission and access arrangements are not covered; confirm current visitor information with the site.
Some facts checked against Wikipedia contributors, "仙佛寺石窟" · CC BY-SA 4.0.