🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Bingling (Binglingsi) Grottoes
Sixteen Kingdoms to Ming ~420–1644 CE · Northwestern Chinese Buddhist (Western Qin to Tibetan)
Yellow River cliff grotto accessible only by boat, bearing China's earliest dated 420 CE inscription.
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214 places in the atlas, 63 of them inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Ming ~420–1644 CE · Northwestern Chinese Buddhist (Western Qin to Tibetan)
Yellow River cliff grotto accessible only by boat, bearing China's earliest dated 420 CE inscription.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Eastern Wei–Northern Qi–Tang (Six Dynasties to Tang) · Eastern Wei Xianbei sinicized; Tang Shanxi Buddhist
Shanxi 25 caves 534–907: south peak Cave 11 Maitreya assembly with thin-line and Japanese-return Bodhisattva.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties (Northern Wei late) · Tuoba Wei (Xianbei) Buddhist with Han artisan school
UNESCO Yungang western 15-cave zone 494–525 with central-pillar and collapsed colossus.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang (Northern Liang 420 peak) · Hexi Corridor mixed Han–Tibetan Buddhist (Juqu Mengxun lineage)
Mati Si southern 12-cave cliff 420 CE Thousand-Buddha with hoof-print legend and hanging plankway.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Early Medieval Central Asian (Tocharian B) · Tocharian Buddhist (Kucha Kingdom) with Gandhara influence
Kucha Tocharian western 42-cave valley 400–700 CE diamond ceilings and lapis blue, German-removal archive.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Eastern Wei to Tang · Han Chinese Buddhist, Northern Dynasties, Tang cosmopolitan
Taiyuan south peak 13 caves with Tang Manshan Pavilion Maitreya 4 m and stolen apsaras digital-reunion, 534–907 CE.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Wei (Northern Dynasties) · Tuoba Xianbei-Han Buddhist imperial
Yungang western annex 5 caves with Cave 12 music pavilion and 10k-buddha niches, 453–494 Northern Wei Tanyao.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Northern Dynasties (Western Wei to Northern Zhou) · Northern Zhou Buddhist (Yuwen court patronage)
North-face shaded Maitreya pensive niche preserving straw-plastic polychrome.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Sui to Tang · Sui-Tang Buddhist (Taiyuan Jinyang school)
Eastern 8-cave Sui peak of Tianlong Mountain above Taiyuan with Amitabha hall.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan · Hexi Buddhist (Northern Liang, Northern Wei, Sui, Tang, Uyghur, Tibetan, Yuan)
800-m-south Mati grotto cluster with 7-m Shakyamuni and horse-hoof legend slab.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Tang to Song (Late Tang Wei Junjing phase to Southern Song) · Sichuan Buddhist gentry (Dazu artisan guilds)
Dazu UNESCO eastern valley 150 niches Tang–Song 892–1169 with Avalokitesvara transformation.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Western Jin to Yuan (300 – 1300 CE) · Buddhist Hexi nomad to Tang imperial
Lower cliffs with 420 CE earliest inscribed cave 169 of 169 caves at Liujia Reservoir.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Later Qin to Song (384 – 1279 CE) · Buddhist Hexi to Central Plains transition at Wei River gap
East face stacked 90 caves 142 m hill with 16 m Buddha and plankway tiers.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan (397 – 1368 CE) · North Asian Buddhist with Tibetan Yugur later
Thousand Buddha northern cliff with 30 caves and horse-hoof imprint 397–1368 CE.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang ~384–907 CE · Chinese Buddhist Northern Dynasties
Stacked-cliff wheat-plant-shaped grotto city with 7,200 sculptures on bolted plank galleries.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms to Yuan (366 – 1368 CE) northern cells 960–1300 · Buddhist monastic Dunhuang oasis international
North cliff austere monastic cells 1000–1300 CE opposite southern painted scripture halls.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Wei to Liao (453 – 525 CE peak) · Buddhist Tanyao imperial under Emperor Wencheng
Western 5 caves 40–45 with Tanyao Buddhas 15 m of Northern Wei Pingcheng capital.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Sixteen Kingdoms Northern Liang to Qing (400 CE–1910) · Hexi Corridor Buddhist (Tibetan, Yugur, Sogdian trader, Han)
Hexi 70 caves 400–1200 with Thirty-Three Heavens hollow-mountain labyrinth and horse hoof print on Qilian 2600 m.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties (Northern Qi imperial) · Northern Qi Imperial Buddhist (Ye capital Gao clan)
Qi royal 9-cave north cluster 550–577 North Cave Buddha with 1909 Freer looting and 3D reunion.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Wei to Song · Northern Wei, Sui, Tang cosmopolitan
Luoyang west bank core with Guyang 493 earliest cave 800 inscriptions and Binyang pagoda, Northern Wei–Tang.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Northern Dynasties to Tang (Northern Qi 550–577 peak) · North China Buddhist imperial patronage (Qi and Tang)
Quyang white-marble mountain 12 caves 550–750 CE South Cave Vairocana, quarry-monastery.
🇨🇳 China · Temple complex
Sixteen Kingdoms to Tang · Western Qin to Tang Buddhist (Bingling synthesis)
South partition of monumental natural Cave 169 with 384 Sui–Tang niches and Tang donor cartouche.
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Bronze to Iron Age (2000 BCE–300 CE) · Rock-cut tradition
Longmen — Binyang Central Cave North Wall in Henan, Luoyang, Longmen, China is a Bronze to Iron Age (2000 BCE–300 CE) rock_cut attributed to Rock-cut tradi…
🇨🇳 China · Rock-cut
Eastern Han to Tang (200 – 800 CE) · Tocharian Buddhist Kucha with Gandhara influence
Central 30–80 of 339 Kizil caves with 3.2 m diamond-vault Buddha of Tocharian Kucha 3rd–8th c.
