There is a Horseshoe Temple in Sunan County, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, about 65 kilometers from downtown Zhangye. The Horseshoe Temple is a temple, and it is a cave. As early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty more than 1600 years ago, this group of grottoes already existed. The
Horse Temple Scenic Area consists of Shengguo Temple, Puguang Temple, Thousand Buddha Cave, Jinta Temple, and the upper, middle and lower Guanyin Caves. There are more than 70 caves. The legendary horseshoe imprint is now in the Puguang Temple Horseshoe. Inside the temple, become the treasure of the town temple. The
rock caves are cut on a cliff wall, with a total of more than 70 places, including many cave groups. There are more than 30 caves in the large cave group, and there are only two caves in the small cave group.
Next to the white pagoda opposite the cliff wall, overlooking the mountains, not far from the Qilian Mountains, Gansu and Qinghai are here.
The earliest of these caves was built in the Jin Dynasty. It was carved by Guo Lan and his disciples of Dunhuang. He was the first lecturer of Guo's retreat. Later generations were like Buddhas. In the heyday, there were more than 300 people. The original name of
Puguang Temple is called the Horseshoe Temple. It is the same age as the Grotto. It has a history of more than 1600 years. Due to the war, the original large-scale buildings were destroyed in the war. In the Beiliang period, the Horseshoe Temple was originally a Han Buddhist temple, and later became a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. When the
Horseshoe Temple was the most prosperous, there were more than 1,000 people in the North Temple, the South Temple and the Thousand Buddha Caves.
River2014
The horse hoof temple. The 1.5 hour journey through the countryside beyond the Zhangye city brought us to the 1600 years old temple. Bravo, to build the temple in a Rocky Mountain is really hard. 马蹄寺 is fascinating place with beautiful nature landscapes around and rare artifacts inside. Remember the temperature fluctuation is drastic, it could be snowy at early morning but at noon you will experience hot sunny summer. Make sure with a driver when and where exactly he is leaving, or you are risking to stay there for longer time. Totally, three hours were enough to explore the temple and surrounding area.
If you like walking and climbing up .... This is a must see place! The Tibetan monks carving rocks into temple!!!! How amazing this is. We get there by car and it is actually not many people at all when we were there. Many interesting spots, we get inside and walk around the mountain to see grottoes.
Incredible grottoes and beautiful vistas. Recommended to go from Zhangye South Bus station and the driver will take you there and bring you back the same day. It is worth climbing to the top of the stairs to the viewing platform as well. Beautiful scenery, fresh air and relaxed vibe.
we took a bus here from south bus station and then a taxi. many people take a car, but the bus and taxi is much cheaper. it’s a beautiful area! 100% must go.
very cool site outside of ZhangYe. need to hire a driver to get here but worth it. takes about half day to see all the sites here.