introduce
The Qipan Thousand Buddha Cave is located on the sand cliff of the Qipan River Valley in the southwest of Yecheng County, Xinjiang. Some local people call it "Girl Cave". According to legend, in ancient times, a queen gave birth to a princess. A gentleman once said that the girl was so beautiful that she had to go to a cave to escape the disaster. So the emperor dug a dozen holes on the sandy cliffs of the Qipan River Valley and let the girl live in the cave. "Girl Cave" got its name from this.
This is just a legend. In fact, judging from the shape of the cave and the remaining murals in the cave, this is an ancient Buddhist site that has been excavated no later than the 10th century, and at least a thousand years ago years of history. There are more than 10 caves in the Chessboard Thousand Buddhas, with different sizes. It is one of the Thousand Buddha Caves distributed in the western part of my country. The heights are scattered, and the caves are all single rooms, with a relatively simple structure, square or rectangular. The larger caves are 4.4 meters long and 3.9 meters wide, and the smaller ones are only 2 square meters. The walls in the cave are flat and 3-3.5 meters high. The top is arched or covered with a bucket. There are not many relics in the caves. In some caves, incomplete Buddhist niches, Buddhist seats and murals painted in red, green, blue, black, ocher and other colors can be seen. This Thousand Buddha Cave has a certain reference value for the study of the spread of Buddhism to the East. Inscriptions in Chinese and copper coins, one-ear pots, two-ear red pottery pots and stone millstones have been unearthed nearby.
