Helan Mountains South Gorge — Helankou South Rock Art Park II
贺兰山南峡岩画 · Helankou South · Helan South Gorge
Bronze Age to Medieval·Xiongnu, Xianbei, Dangxiang Tangut, Mongol·🇨🇳 Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yinchuan, Helan Mountains, Helankou Pass south branch, China
About
About Helan Mountains South Gorge — Helankou South Rock Art Park II
1 km south of the main Helankou (Helan Pass) rock art park, the 56-km NW Yinchuan Helan Mountain open-air museum (250 km range). The south gorge concentrates 312 pecked panels on Precambrian gneiss/sandstone within a 800-m defile — 2194 Helan-wide, but south gorge holds the best-preserved mask-sun god gallery (Western Xia, 1038–1227) and a tiger-bharal predation frieze with Tangut inscriptions. Spanning Western Zhou (1000 BCE) to Western Xia/Mongol (1200 CE), the art records northern frontier nomads (Xiongnu, Xianbei, Dangxiang) and Tangut Buddhism.
Helan's best site for studying mask-shamanism vs Tibetan Bon influences. Boardwalk trail extension 2019, separate ticket from north park.
Why it mattersNorthern frontier mask-shamanism type site linking Siberian Okunev masks to Tibetan Bon via Helan corridor.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Antennae-mask identity (sun god vs ancestor)
- 02Tiger-bharal ecological vs symbolic
Theories
- 01Helan pass ritual control of Ordos-Hexi migration
- 02Tangut Buddhist dharma protection panel
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.1000 BCE–1227 CE (Western Zhou to Western Xia)
- Period
- Bronze Age to Medieval
- Culture
- Xiongnu, Xianbei, Dangxiang Tangut, Mongol
- Builders
- Helan piedmont nomadic pastoralists and Tangut garrisons
- Purpose
- Mountain pass ritual gallery marking Helan corridor between Ordos and Hexi
- Abandoned
- 1227 Mongol conquest
- Rediscovered
- 1965 Li Xiangshi; 1988 Ningxia Rock Art Association centre; 2000 Paola Demattè survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1000 BCE
Earliest deer-tiger panels
1038 CE
Western Xia mask peak
1965
First scientific recording
On the ground
Structures & features
38.4250° N · 105.9850° E · 1850 m · 2 mapped features
South Gorge — Mask and Sun God Panel
petroglyph panelVarved sandstone with concentric-circle sun gods and human masks with antennae, Western Xia overlay
38.4260° N · 105.9860° ESouth Gorge — Pastoral Encounter Frieze
petroglyph panel800-m gorge wall with tigers hunting bharal sheep and herder with dog, Northern Dynasties style
38.4240° N · 105.9840° E