2017-09-11 Tibet Trip, Day 4, Maijishan Grottoes and Fuxi Temple

After a restful night in Longnan, we continued our bus journey toward the train station for Tibet.  Today’s itinerary was for a road trip of 610 kilometers (340 miles), with two sightseeing stops.  On this long trip, we started our day early.  By 7:30 am, we were already on the bus.  Three hours later, we arrived at our first stop, Maijishan Grottoes 麥積山石窟.

Maijishan Grottoes is one of the four major Buddhist mountain cave shrines in China;  the other three are Dunhuang Grottoes 敦煌石窟, Longmen Grottoes 龍門石窟, and Yungang Grottoes 雲崗石窟.  During China Trip 1.0, Simon led us to both Longmen and Yungang.  Today’s visit to Maijishan marked the third visit to a Buddhist grotto.  I would venture to guess that a future visit to Dunhuang, to round up a touring of all Buddhist grottoes in China, is in Simon’s plan.

Maijishan Grottoes got its start in the 5^th Century, so it is about 1600 years old.  It comprises 194 caves carved out on cliff faces of Maijishan, a mountain with the shape of a wheat stack.  In each cave, there are statues of Buddha, often flanked by Bodhisattvas and other disciples.  Many, if not most, statues are solid clay sculptures or clay sculptures with rock cores.  As such, clay statues in Maijishan look distinctively different from those rock statues found at Longmen and Yungang.  Likewise, Longmen (2345 caves) and Yungang (1153 caves) are on a much larger scale than Maijishan.

At the Maijishan entrance, again we waited patiently for our tickets to be sorted out with senior citizen discounts.
(Click on each picture to get the full-size view)

The group picture, with the western cliff face of Maijishan as the background.

Ning-Ming’s group.

A view of the eastern cliff face of the “wheat stack” mountain.  A large Buddha statue on the cliff face could be seen from afar.

To view the cave shrines, it required climbing up many steps of numerous ladders.  The lush and splendid greenery of the surrounding mountain ranges formed a relieving backdrop for an otherwise laborious ascendance.

The tallest statues are a 16-meter-tall Buddha and two 13-meter-tall attending Bodhisattvas.

“Seven Buddha Pavilion” houses seven niches in a row, each niche has a sitting Buddha flanked on both sides by either Bodhisattvas or disciples.

The wall in each niche is covered with the mural.

Outside and above the Seven Buddha Pavilion is six rows of neatly arranged Buddha clay sculptures, with a total of 297 Buddha statuettes looking out to the mountain range below.

A daunting stairway led to more grottoes and Buddha statues.

This grotto, the Scattering Flower Pavilion 散花樓, was exquisitely carved out with bigger niches than other grottoes.  It houses seven niches too, hence is also called the Upper Seven Buddha Pavilion.

On the balcony of the Scattering Flower Pavilion, large warrior statues stood guard.

The giant Buddha statue on the eastern cliff face of Maijishan.

After Maijishan, our next stop, Tianshui City 天水市, was just a short distance away.  We visited a temple that commemorated a mythical ancestor of Chinese people, Fuxi 伏羲.   According to Wikipedia, Fuxi is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited with creating humanity and the invention of hunting, fishing, and cooking, as well as a system of writing Chinese characters c. 2,000 BCE.

After this uninspiring temple, we drove another 360 kilometers (224 miles), taking about 5 hours, to reach today’s final destination, Linxia 臨夏.  Before we checked into the hotel very late in the evening, we had a wonderful dinner at an Islamic restaurant.  A dish of boiled lamb with raw garlic as the only condiment was simple yet excellent.  The dinner was one of the more memorable meals in this Tibet trip.

This map shows the second-day journey of our three days bus ride.  We started from point A (Longnan), visited point B (Maijishan) and point C (Tiansui), and finally arrived at point D (Linxia).

Wang Renyu 王仁裕, a local government official during the Tang Dynasty, made an inspection trip to Maijishan once and wrote a poem about what he saw.  His poem is titled “Writing in the Hall of Heaven at Maijishan 題麥積山天堂”.

躡盡懸空萬仞梯，等閑身共白雲齊。
簷前下視羣山小，堂上平分落日低。
絕頂路危人少到，古巖松健鶴頻棲。
天邊爲要留名姓，拂石殷勤身自題。

The poem was translated into English by the late British sinologist, Glen Dudbridge.

    Scaling the full ten thousand fathoms of ladders hung in space,

    My unremarkable body levels up with the white clouds.

    In front of these eaves I gaze down to see the myriad mountains tiny,

    At this hall I have equal shares with the setting sun’s descent.

    The way is steep to the topmost peak, few men come;

    But where pines stand sturdy on an ancient cliff cranes are wont to roost.

    Wishing to leave my name at the edge of the sky,

    I smooth off the rock and busily inscribe this in my own hand.

Here is my feeble attempt of changing it to rhyme, as the original poem does.
    Scaling the full ten thousand fathoms of ladders hung in midair,
    my unremarkable body levels up with the white clouds in a pair.
    In front of these eaves I gaze down to see the myriad mountains tiny;
    the setting sun in descent casts its glow in this hall evenly.
    The way is steep to the topmost peak, few men dare;
    but where pines stand sturdily on an ancient cliff, cranes built their lairs.
    Wishing to leave at the edge of the sky my appellation,
    I smooth off the rock face and eagerly inscribe my composition.


Du Fu 杜甫, the prolific great poet from the Tang dynasty also wrote a poem about Maijishan, titled “Mountain Temple 山寺”.

野寺殘僧少，山園細路高。
麝香眠石竹，鸚鵡啄金桃。
亂石通人過，懸崖置屋牢。
上方重閣晚，百里見秋毫。

English translation by anon.

    There are few monks left in these remote shrines,
    and in the wilderness the narrow paths are high.
    The musk-deer sleep among the stones and bamboo,
    The cockatoos peck at the golden peaches.
    Streams trickle down among the paths;
    Across the overhanging cliff the cells are ranged.
    Their tiered chambers reaching to the very peak;
    And for a 100 li one can make out the smallest thin.

My rhyming modification:

    There are few monks left in these remote temples,
    and in the wilderness, the paths are high and narrow.
    The musk-deer sleep among bamboo protruding through the stone cracks;
    at the golden peaches the cockatoos peck.
    A tangle of rock allows a person to pass,
    across the overhanging cliff, cells are securely built to last.
    In the very peak, evening in the tiered chambers,
    from 100 miles away, visible are the fine strands of newly grown hair.