Tiantishan Caves

Buddha Triad of the Tang dynasty from Tiantishan at Gansu Provincial Museum

The Tiantishan Caves (Chinese: 天梯山石窟; pinyin: Tiāntīshān shíkū) are a series of rock cut Buddhist cave temples in the Liangzhou District of Wuwei, Gansu, northwest China. Excavated from the eastern cliffs of the Huangyang River (黃羊河) in the Qilian Mountains from the time of the Northern Liang, carving, decoration and subsequent modification of the caves continued through the Northern Wei and Tang to the Qing dynasty.[1] The complex is identified with the Liangzhou Caves opened during the time of Juqu Mengxun "one hundred li to the south of Liangzhou", as recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms and Fayuan Zhulin.[1][2] The name Tiantishan consists of three Chinese characters (天梯山) that literally translate as "Ladder to Heaven Mountain".[3]

  1. ^ a b Zhou Guoxin; Zhang Jianquan; Cheng Huaiwan (1997). "Pigment Analysis of Polychrome Statuary and Wall Paintings of the Tiantishan Grottoes". In Agnew, Neville (ed.). Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road: Proceedings of an International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites (PDF). Getty Conservation Institute. pp. 362 ff. ISBN 978-0892364169.
  2. ^ Zhang Xuerong; He Jingzhen; Wu Yiru (2000). 武威天梯山石窟 [The Grottoes in the Tianti Mountain, Wuwei]. Cultural Relics Publishing House. pp. 8, 292–5. ISBN 7501012202.
  3. ^ "Tiantishan Grottoes (Wuwei)". China Daily. 2 November 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2017.