Shikchin Thousand-Buddha Cave
1 min readShikchin Thousand-Buddha Cave, also known as the “Seven Lattice Star Bright House”and located at 30km southwest of today’s Yanqi county, was one of the “Buddhist Temples”at that time and now here only remains one temple relic of the Tang Dynasty. Shikchin Thousand-Buddha Cave relic is composed of Grand South Temple, North Temple and the Thousand-Buddha Cave grottoes not far from the temple.
Archaeologists found many Buddha heads of clay sculpture in Grand South Temple and North Temple. The Buddha head unearthed in Grand South Temple are the works of 6-7 century with a high nose,a round face and aGandhara style. The Buddha heads unearthed in North Temple are estimated to be works of 8-9 century with color decoration, arch eyebrows and a square face, showing the Oriental aesthetic taste. Shikchin Thousand-Buddha Cave relic is close to highways and there is a clear spring in the central low-lying place of the temple relic flowing towards north.
The Thousand-Buddha Cave was dug against mountains with a grand scale, but now there only exists 12 caves. Some cave doors are westward, like the pray to West Buddha; some are southward, as if calling the sun to shine into the hole; some cave is square; and some caves are rectangular base without any Buddha statue. The wall paintings are gone and now some cloud pattern, interlock branch pattern, vine-shaped pattern and so on are only found in the No.2,3,5,7 grottoes.
