Chessboard thousand Buddha cave

Chessboard thousand Buddha cave

Qipan thousand Buddha cave is located on the sand cliff of Qipan Valley in the southwest of Yecheng County, Xinjiang. Some local people call it "girl cave". It is said that in ancient times, a queen gave birth to a princess. The fortune teller said that the girl had a poor life and had to go to the cave to avoid disaster. So the emperor dug more than ten holes in the sand cliff of the chessboard Valley to let the girl live in the cave. Hence the name "girl's cave".

essential information

The origin of chessboard thousand Buddha cave is only a legend. In fact, judging from the shape of the cave and the remaining murals in the cave, it is a Buddhist site preserved in ancient times. It was excavated at least before the 10th century and has a history of more than 1000 years. There are more than 10 caves of different sizes. It is one of the thousand Buddha Caves in the west of China. The largest cave is 4.4 meters long and 3.9 meters wide, and the smallest one is only 2 square meters. The four walls of the cave are flat and 3-3.5m high. The top is arched or covered with bucket. There are few relics in the caves. In some caves, you can see incomplete niches, Buddha seats and murals painted in red, green, blue, black and ochre. This thousand Buddha cave has a certain reference value for the study of Buddhism spreading to the East. Bronze coins, one ear pots, two ear red pottery pots and stone grinding plates with Chinese and Arabic inscriptions were unearthed nearby.

Address: on the sand cliff of Qipan Valley, southwest of Qipan Township, Yecheng County, Xinjiang

Longitude: 76.914497375488

Latitude: 37.72668838501