Dafosi (Giant Buddha Temple)
Dafosi, is located within the city of
Zhangye, it was built in 1098 during the Western Xia period
and revamped many times during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The main hall that house the giant Buddha was restored during
th, Qianlong reign (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty The hall
is 49 meters wide and 24 meters deep with a total floor
space of 1,370 square meters It is the largest structure
dating from the West ern Xia period in Gansu.
The giant Buddha lies in the middle of
the hall. A massive painted clay statue with a wooden skeleton,
it is 34.5 meters long and 7.5 meter from shoulder to shoulder
and its ears exceed meters in length. The walls of the hall
are covered with paintings. Apart from some pictures o the
Buddha's warrior attendants, most of these murals depict
Buddhist stories and episodes from Journey to the West,
a classic Chinese mythological novel written during the
Ming Dynasty.
The temple has in its collection a great
number of brick and wood carvings and a rare cop, of Tripitaka,
which provide good material for the study of the history
of Buddhism, architecture culture, and arts in the area
west of the Yellov River in Gansu in ancient times.
Matisi is located on the west bank of
the Mati (Horse's Hoof) River in the Sunan Yugur Autonomous
County at the foot of the Qilain Mountains some 65 kilometers
south of the city of Zhangye. Legend has it that God Erlang
stopped to relax his horse here when he was pursuing the
fleeing sun. To remember the god, the locals built a temple
here and so named it because the god's horse had left foofprints
on the riverbank.
Matisi is a complex of grottoes. It consists
of the Asvajit Cave Temple, the Universal Light Caves, the
Thousand-Buddha Caves, the Golden Pagoda Caves, and the
Upper, Middle, and Lower Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) Caves.
Matisi is built within a high cliff face and accessible
only via an amazing passageway through the caves.
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