Northern Cave Temple

The North Grotto Temple, commonly known as the Great Buddha Temple, is one of the four major grottoes in Gansu. The North Grotto Temple is backed by Qingshan Mountain and faces Biliu. On the ochre-red rock cliff with a length of 12 meters and a height of 20 meters, 295 cave niches from the Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Song and Qing dynasties were excavated. , There are 2125 statues of various sizes, the caves are densely populated, shaped like a peak room, 20 meters high and 120 meters long. It is a relatively rich grotto in Longdong area. The grottoes are divided into upper, middle and lower layers, among which the 165th cave is the larger one, which is a large cave with the content of the seven Buddhas. The statues of the Seven Buddhas are magnificent and exquisite, solemn and solemn, without losing the brilliance and charm of the statues of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Maitreya Bodhisattva carved with the seven Buddhas, the riding statue Bodhisattva, and the Asura holding the sun and the moon are all works of art. In addition, there is also a statue of the Northern Zhou Dynasty in Cave 240, which shows a simple and solemn demeanor. There are many caves in the Tang Dynasty in the North Grottoes Temple. The most representative one is the No. 32 cave built in the first year of Wu Zetian's Ruyi year (AD 692). The large and small statues in the cave have plump faces, beautiful eyes and affectionate eyes, and they are moving, and their postures are moving. They can be called the works of art in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. There are also more than 150 inscriptions of Sui, Tang, Song, Jin, Xixia, Yuan and other dynasties in the cave, which are treasures for studying history and calligraphy.