Tiantishan Grottoes

The Tiantishan Grottoes, about fifty kilometres south of Wuwei, were carved over 1,600 years beginning in the fourth century and continued through the Tang Dynasty, when the site was at its most active and produced its finest work. The caves contain Buddhist sculptures in stone and clay, murals, and inscriptions spanning multiple dynasties. A dam built in the 1960s flooded the lower sections of the site and forced the relocation of some statuary to provincial museums, but the upper caves remain accessible and are considerably less visited than the better-known sites at Dunhuang or Maijishan.

The reservoir created by the dam has its own strange beauty, and the contrast between the submerged lower caves and the intact upper sections makes for an unusual visit. Getting there requires a bus or taxi from Wuwei; the site is not on a major tourist route and you may be the only visitor. Allow a full half-day for the round trip.

things to do sight
A story
The Tiantishan Buddha was one of the great Tang Dynasty sculptures in China — a seated figure carved into a cliff face above the Huangyang River. In the 1950s, a dam was built upstream. The lower caves flooded. Some of the statuary was salvaged and moved to Lanzhou; the great seated figure was left in place, its legs and lower body submerged by the rising reservoir. For decades, the Buddha's head and shoulders remained visible above the waterline, emerging and submerging as the water level changed with the seasons. It was rescued and moved to the Gansu Provincial Museum in 2019.