Occidentally Oriental

A Tibetan temple overlooking the Qilian mountains (which I'd never heard of) carved into a cliff face. The area is full of caves and grottoes and inside are carvings of stupas and Bhuddist statues. White, red, blue, green and yellow flags stream from the cliff face to the floor below and roofs jut from the wall floating. It was really an incredible thing to see. Construction started during 4th century AD and continued to be developed throughout many dynasties to come. On the bottom floor there is a single grotto holding 48 statues that were all carved during the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty and it is the largest grotto in China. (No pictures though, they're quite strict on it). The climb to the top is an adventure in itself, giant steps, cramped spaces, all sorts of nooks and crannies to explore as we ascended to the floating rooms. This being my first Tibetan Bhuddist temple I have ever been to it struck me as a mix of Hinduism and "traditional" Bhuddism. There once seemed to be a lot of murals with mythical monsters and the temple itself is named after a legendary horse that a king rode, a horse that left it's hoof print in the third section of the temple, "matisi" means horse in Chinese. All of this to the background of some epic snowcapped mountains, I even got to touch some snowthat hadn't melted in the snow, first time for about 2 years! Matisi temple is a real treasure and one so far removed from China proper that there were hardly any tourists there at all which in itself is something worth going for!Read more