Jingchuan Travel Recommendations for 2024 (Updated in Jun)
Wangmuugong Grottoes Travel Recommendations for 2024 (Updated in Jun)
Gansu Jingchuan Wangmu Palace Grottoes
Wangmu Palace Grottoes, also known as the Great Buddha Cave (also known as the Thousand Buddha Cave), was established in the third year of Yongping of the Northern Wei Dynasty (510 AD).
Wangmu Palace Grottoes are carved on a gray sandy rock layer, which is a central pillar grotto, the largest central pillar cave in Longdong Grottoes. On May 25, 2006, Wangmu Palace Grottoes were announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. The cave type and statue style of Wangmu Palace Grottoes are similar to those of the central pillar caves in the second phase of Yungang, which is a typical example of the influence of the Yungang model to the west. Wangmu Palace Grottoes face east to the west, 11 meters high, 12.6 meters wide, and 13 meters deep. The front wall has been destroyed, and the late Qing Dynasty buildings in front of the cave still exist. There are more than 200 images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings, Arhats, and strong rib servants on the north, west, and south walls and the four sides of the central pillar in the cave.
Jingchuan Dayun Temple Museum Travel Recommendations for 2024 (Updated in Jun)
Gansu Jingchuan Dayun Temple
Dayun Temple, known as Daxingguo Temple during the Sui Dynasty, was renamed by Empress Wu Zetian. Dayun Temple was built on the original site of the Daxingguo Temple of the Sui Dynasty. The stone casket, relic vial, and relics underneath the original pagoda foundation were taken out, and made into gilded bronze caskets, gold and silver coffins, and then the 14 Buddha's bone relics were placed in a colored glaze vial, reburied in the underground palace in 694 AD, and a pagoda was built for worship, which is 180 years earlier than the Famen Temple underground palace in Shaanxi. In April 2007, the construction project of Dayun Temple Museum was launched and completed in May 2010, covering a total area of 364 acres, with buildings such as the main exhibition hall, relic pagoda, and auxiliary exhibition hall.
Dayun Temple chose to build the pagoda and establish the temple on the site of Daxingguo Temple. At the start of construction, the relics offered during the Sui Dynasty were discovered. The empress's decree to build Dayun Temple coincided with the discovery of the Buddha's relics, which was considered a very auspicious coincidence. Therefore, a master of gold and silverware was invited to select gems and pearls to make copper, silver, and gold coffins, and to place the 14 Buddha bone relics in a sulfur glass vial, accompanied by a stone casket, with clear inscriptions of the dynasty, location, and quantity, and to build the underground palace and establish the temple.
The 14 relic beads have 5 layers of packaging. A graduate of the History Department of Lanzhou University and a staff member of the county cultural center, Zhang Yingwen, wrote an excavation report: The underground palace has a door, with a stone semicircular arch, the front of which is lined with auspicious clouds surrounding the sacred vessel, with two flying figures soaring in the air. The arch is supported by two four-sided stone pillars on a stone threshold. The front and inner sides of the pillars are carved with protective deities.
Inside the underground palace is a stone casket about half a meter square, with a cover shaped like an inverted bowl, inscribed with the 16 characters 'The casket of relics from Dayun Temple in Jingzhou, Dazhou, totaling fourteen beads'. The body of the casket is inscribed all around. Inside the casket is a copper box 4 inches square, very similar in appearance to the stone casket, with a lock on the box, and the key tied to the box with a fine gold chain, which can still be opened. Inside the copper box is a rectangular silver coffin, slightly smaller than the box, with a tile-shaped lid and a low railing around it, and a pair of small rings on each side of the coffin body. The surfaces of the box and coffin are finely carved with plain patterns of winter jasmine flowers. Inside the silver coffin is the gold coffin. The gold coffin looks similar to the silver coffin but is slightly smaller, with a lotus pattern made of gold leaves all around, with various colored gems inlaid in the flowers, and larger white pearls embedded in the center and sides. Inside the gold coffin is a very small spherical fine-necked colored glaze vial containing 14 white crystals, the 'relic beads'.
The 'Encyclopedia of Chinese Archaeology' records the Jingchuan gold and silver coffins as a major event in national archaeology in 1964, with a color print of the pagoda foundation. The book 'Fifty Years of Gansu Cultural Relics Work' includes a 'Chronicle of Major Events in Fifty Years of Gansu Cultural Relics'.
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