The Xumi Mountain Grottoes — Xumi Shan Shiku in Chinese — rank among the most significant Buddhist cave art sites in the northwest, yet they see only a fraction of the visitors who crowd Dunhuang or Longmen. The complex comprises 132 surviving rock-cut chambers carved into the eastern sandstone face of Sumeru Shan, about 55 kilometres northwest of Guyuan, over a period stretching from the Northern Wei dynasty through the Tang. The mountain's name refers to Mount Sumeru, the sacred peak at the centre of Buddhist cosmology.
The quality of the Tang-period work in particular is remarkable. Bodhisattva figures in several chambers show the fluid drapery and naturalistic modelling characteristic of the dynasty's confident artistic maturity. The seated Buddha in Cave 45 is considered one of the finest examples of Tang cave sculpture anywhere in China. Other chambers retain traces of original polychrome paint, worn but still readable. The remoteness of the site and the dry climate of the Loess Plateau have helped preserve the stone carving better than comparable sites in more humid provinces.
Access is straightforward from Guyuan: hire a car or take a direct bus in the morning, allowing three to four hours at the site. Admission covers a shuttle bus from the car park to the cave entrances.