Horseshoe Temple

Horseshoe temple is located in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County of Gansu Province, at the foot of Qilian Mountain. It is a huge grotto temple complex. It is said that when Tianma came down to earth, he stepped on a rock here and left his footprints, hence the name. There are both temples of Chinese Buddhism and temples of Tibetan Buddhism. The same place has different styles and is very unique. The environment of horseshoe temple is beautiful, with green mountains, beautiful water, strange peaks and different caves. Tourists can also live in Yugur tents, drink highland barley wine, eat hand grazed meat, and experience the unique lifestyle and cultural characteristics of grassland nomads.

The grottoes of horseshoe temple are relatively scattered. The grottoes are composed of Shengguo temple, Puguang temple, thousand Buddha cave, Jinta temple, upper, middle and lower Guanyin cave, with a total of more than 70 niches. They were first built in Beiliang. The unique features of the grottoes of horseshoe temple are that there are more than 500 cliff pagoda niches in thousand Buddha cave, which are large-scale; the large-scale meat carving flying Apsaras in Jinta temple is the only one in China, which is simple and elegant; the thirty-three heaven cave of Puguang temple, which has 21 Grottoes on five floors, is arranged in pagoda shape, with a Buddha Hall inside and an ambulatory outside, with 49 holes inside and outside.

Located next to the horseshoe hall, the thirty-three days Buddha cave is the main building of horseshoe temple. A seven story ladder building has been dug along the mountain. It's very spectacular to watch and shoot outside. Walking up the dark steps inside the cave, you can see many ancient Buddha statues, but most of them are destroyed.

Horseshoe Temple

MATI temple is located in MATI Tibetan Township, Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu Province, 65 kilometers north of Zhangye City. It is a tourist area integrating grotto art, Qilian mountain scenery and Tibetan customs.

The grottoes are composed of Shengguo temple, Puguang temple, thousand Buddha cave, Jinta temple, upper, middle and lower Guanyin cave, with a total of more than 70 niches. It was first built in Beiliang. Horseshoe temple is named after the legend that the heavenly horse has horseshoe marks here. The legendary horseshoe imprint is now in the horseshoe Hall of Puguang temple, becoming the treasure of the town temple.

Overview of temples

Located in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, it is a tourist area integrating grotto art, Qilian mountain scenery and Tibetan customs. Founded in Beiliang, the grottoes are composed of Shengguo temple, Puguang temple, thousand Buddha cave, Jinta temple, upper, middle and lower Guanyin cave, with a total of more than 70 niches. Horseshoe Temple Grottoes is a large-scale group of grottoes. It includes seven small grottoes, meandering nearly 30 kilometers. It is a state-level cultural relics protection unit. Folklore: when Tianma came down to earth, his hoof fell on a rock here and stepped on a hoof mark, hence the name of the temple. The grottoes of horseshoe temple include seven small caves: Thousand Buddha cave, North and South horseshoe temple, upper, middle and lower Guanyin cave and Jinta temple

Grottoes. Each small cave group has more than 30 caves and less than two, with a total of more than 70 caves.

The earliest of these caves, built in the Jin Dynasty, was carved by Guo Zhen and his disciples from Dunhuang. First it was Guo's seclusion lecture hall, and later it was built with statues of Buddha. In its heyday, there were more than 300 monks.

In the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Puguang temple. The gold saddle and dragon robes in the temple were originally given by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Because of its long history, horseshoe grottoes, together with Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and Yulin Grottoes in Anxi, are called the three art treasures of Hexi Buddhist resort.

Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the MATI Temple Grottoes have gone through the Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, song (Xixia), yuan, Ming, Qing, Republic of China and modern times for more than 1600 years. It is one of the cultural relics with a long history and high artistic value. The unique feature of MATI Temple Grottoes is that there are more than 500 cliff pagoda niches in thousand Buddha cave, which are large in scale and are the unique life style and cultural characteristics of nomadic people on the grassland.

Temple information

Horseshoe temple, also known as Puguang temple, was built in Beiliang during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It is more than 1600 years ago. Unfortunately, due to the separatist regime of the Northern Warlords at that time, chaos, and the change of dynasties, the original large-scale buildings of horseshoe temple were destroyed in the war, including Jinta temple, Qianfo cave, north-south horseshoe temple, Guanyin cave and so on And many grottoes. In Beiliang period, horseshoe temple was first a Chinese Buddhist temple, and then gradually became a Tibetan Buddhist temple, belonging to Qinghai Dongke Temple of Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Since the temple was built, incense has been extremely prosperous, with more than 1000 monks at its peak, and there are still more than 50 monks in the early days of the founding of the people's Republic, which shows the glory of horseshoe temple in history.

The horseshoe temple was destroyed again during the cultural revolution. Not only the grottoes, murals and Buddha statues in the temple were almost destroyed, but also the buildings outside the grottoes were completely destroyed. The thirty-three days grottoes, the horseshoe seal grottoes, the Tibetan Buddha Hall grottoes, the Shengguo temple and the thousand Buddha cave Grottoes in the horseshoe temple are mostly restored after the reform and opening up. The main buildings in the temple, such as the Mahatma hall, the standing Buddha Hall, the Guanyin hall and the pharmacist Hall, are mostly the relics of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, which is a great misfortune. Although these pavilions have been attacked by a hundred years of wind and rain, they are still towering On the cliff, people can't help but marvel at the excellent architectural skills of the ancients, which gives a great shock to people's vision and soul. Many cultural relics, such as the standing Buddha of the Jin Dynasty, the Manjusri Bodhisattva sword of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Dragon Robe of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, and the saddle of Emperor Qianlong, collected in the temple, make people sigh at the vicissitudes of history and the glory of horseshoe temple.

Temple layout

The unique features of the grottoes of horseshoe temple are that there are more than 500 cliff pagoda niches in thousand Buddha cave, which are large-scale; the large-scale meat carving flying Apsaras in Jinta temple is the only one in China, which is simple and elegant; the thirty-three heaven cave of Puguang temple, which has 21 Grottoes on five floors, is arranged in pagoda shape, with a Buddha Hall inside and an ambulatory outside, with 49 holes inside and outside. The environment of horseshoe temple is beautiful, with green mountains, beautiful water, strange peaks and different caves. Tourists can also live in Tibetan tents, drink highland barley wine, eat hand grazed meat, and experience the unique lifestyle and cultural characteristics of grassland nomads.

Since the founding of the temple, incense has been very prosperous, with more than 1000 monks at its peak. At the beginning of the founding of the people's Republic of China, there were still more than 50 monks, which shows the glory of horseshoe temple in history.

During the cultural revolution, horseshoe temple was seriously damaged again. Not only the grottoes, murals and Buddha statues in the temple were almost destroyed, but also the buildings outside the grottoes disappeared.

In the Yugur tent of MATI temple, you can enjoy the happy and enthusiastic Tibetan Grassland songs and dances, and taste the unique silver bowl wine and hand grasping mutton.

There are countless stone pagodas and Thousand Buddha Caves chiseled on the cliff, such as the thirty-three days hall, the Tibetan Buddha Hall, the horseshoe hall, the medicine king hall, the King Gesar hall, etc., which can be called the masterpiece of Chinese Grotto Art. In addition, the open and spacious orchid flat, such as the lotus peak with five lotus flowers in full bloom, the LinSong waterfall flying down, the verdant virgin forest and the grassland where you can try your riding posture, is even more unforgettable.

Historical evolution

Horseshoe mountain is densely forested and its peak is covered with snow all the year round. Horseshoe Temple used to include seven grottoes and temples, including Jinta temple, thousand Buddha cave, North South horseshoe temple, upper, middle and lower Guanyin cave. There are more than 70 grottoes. It is the largest grotto group in Gansu Province except Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Tianshui Maiji Mountain and Yongjing Bingling temple. Among them, Beisi has the largest scale, with more than 30 caves, followed by Qianfo cave, and Jinta temple has only 2 caves. There are two obvious horseshoe marks on the green stone slab of horseshoe hall, from which the place name and temple name come. According to folklore, horseshoe was left by Tianma xiajie. "Gansu Fu Zhi" records: "the Puguang temple, also known as the horseshoe temple, is the hidden place of Guo Zhen in Jin Dynasty. The stone cave was chiseled in Guo Zhen and his disciples, and later generations expanded it to include the Buddha statue.". At the beginning, horseshoe temple was a temple of Chinese Buddhism. With the change of history, it gradually evolved into a temple combining Tibetan Buddhism with Chinese Buddhism. The temple of MATI temple was originally built by the 14 ethnic groups of reqiong in the southeast of MATI, and was supported by the 14 ethnic groups of MATI. Horseshoe temple has a large scale and momentum. At its peak, there were more than 1000 monks in the North Temple, South Temple and Thousand Buddha cave. At the beginning of the founding of the people's Republic of China, there were more than 50 monks. During the period of "Cultural Revolution", the temples suffered heavy losses, the Buddha statues and murals in the grottoes were completely destroyed, and the ancient buildings outside the grottoes disappeared. In 1986, the Buddha Hall of the 33rd Tianshi Grottoes in the north of horseshoe temple was restored. Later, the Sutra Hall of the lowest level Grottoes was also restored.

poetry

First song

Winter tour of horseshoe Temple

Ni Xiaowu

On a cold night in Qilian, the stars shine on the horseshoe.

Shenji wants to take advantage of the power of flying, and then falls into the snow and mud.

A hundred generations of poor workers are not skillful, and Bodhi is planted on iron cliff and copper cliff.

Who is the prophet left behind? The wizard of fairies returns and birds sing.

The second song

There are villages in the middle of the mountain, and the smoke of cooking is rising in the evening.

When a young chicken runs away, a dog barks and a stranger comes.

The curving path is shallow with moss, and the garden has new leaves.

You live in them, a total of natural pottery.

Temples and grottoes

The grottoes are composed of Shengguo temple, Puguang temple, thousand Buddha cave, Jinta temple, upper, middle and lower Guanyin cave, with a total of more than 70 niches. It was first built in Beiliang. Horseshoe temple is named after the legend that the heavenly horse has horseshoe seal here. The legendary horseshoe imprint is now in the horseshoe Hall of Puguang temple, becoming the treasure of the town temple. The Matisi grottoes are the key cultural relics protection units in China. The grottoes were excavated in the northern Liang period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, with a history of more than 1600 years. Some early forms, statues and murals in the grottoes such as the Jinta temple and the thousand Buddha cave all retain the characteristics of ancient simplicity and simplicity

Chinese PinYin : Ma Ti Si