The ancestor of grottoes that has been preserved with great difficulty!

The ancestor of grottoes that has been preserved with great difficulty! The ancestor of grottoes on the Hexi Corridor that you cannot miss is the Tianti Mountain Grottoes in Wuwei. It was excavated during the Northern Liang period (397-439) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Sixteen Kingdoms period, and is one of the earliest excavated grottoes. The eminent monk Tan Yao of Liangzhou, who presided over the construction here, later presided over the construction of the Yungang and Longmen Grottoes. Tianti Mountain Grottoes was announced as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. The grottoes have been severely damaged by wars and natural disasters over the years, and the surviving cultural relics were later relocated to the Wuwei Museum due to the construction of the Huangyang Reservoir, and a small portion is on display at the Gansu Museum. Currently, only the Great Buddha Cave is open to the public, and when you look around, you can see some smaller grottoes distributed on the high cliffs, which are not open to the public. When you pass through the Arhat Cave and the Great Buddha Cave suddenly appears in front of you, it is hard not to exclaim in admiration! In the Great Buddha Cave under the dome, each statue has a different expression; the murals on the left and right walls of the cave are clearly presented in front of you, and these murals have smooth and delicate lines and elegant colors. If you look closely at the Buddha's clothes, you can still see the different shades of blue and some cloud patterns on the corners of the floating robes. The texture of the clothes of the warriors standing on both sides is very clear, and you can easily recognize the various details on the armor. There are two perspectives to view the grottoes, the modern perspective: standing on the wall to view the grottoes, the line of sight is basically level with Samantabhadra and Manjushri, and you can better appreciate the details and structure of the grottoes. The ancient perspective, that is, from the steps next to the grottoes to the feet of the Great Buddha, looking up at the Great Buddha and the Bodhisattvas; this kind of looking up may be the worship effect that the builders hoped that people from ancient times to the present could achieve when they came here. Perhaps tracing the roots is something that enthusiasts or scholars are interested in. As ordinary people, we are more likely to appreciate these grottoes from an aesthetic point of view, and in this process, we are actually having a dialogue and resonance with the ancients, because our understanding of beauty is the same. Scenic area navigation: Wuwei Tianti Mountain Grottoes Opening hours: All year round, ticket inspection ends at 17:00.