It takes more than three hours to drive from Dingxi to Tianshui, and there are mostly barren mountains and ridges along the way. It takes less than half an hour to get from Tianshui to Maiji Mountain, but the road is lush and green, and Tianshui favors Maiji Mountain. Tianshui is worthy of being called Tianshui. It is nourished by the water of the Tianhe River. What more can I ask for?
Maiji Mountain is an isolated peak in Xiaolong Mountain, said to be 142 meters above the ground. There are lush green trees all around, but Maiji Mountain is stacked high. From a distance, it really looks like the wheat stacks piled up by experienced farmers. The layers are stacked up meticulously, and they are almost vertical to the ground. There are caves on the cliff, but there are sparse grass and trees growing on the top, as if wearing a green crown. It is said that Maiji Misty Rain is a scenic spot in Maiji Mountain Scenic Area. Unfortunately, the weather is not beautiful and my eyesight is not good. It seems that I can only try to figure it out in my imagination.
? Walking up the gentle slope, you can see three giant Buddhas floating on the cliff on the left from a distance. The one in the middle is solemn and is said to be 13 meters high. The height of the two sides is about 9 meters. The one on the right was gouged out by someone unknown, leaving only a mark, showing no joy, anger, sorrow or joy. The face of the one on the left is slightly tilted towards the main Buddha, with an ocher face, which is very eye-catching. I think of the plateau red on the faces of ordinary people in the northwest.
Turn left at the end of the gentle slope and you can see a relatively large square. Facing us at the end of the square is Maiji Mountain. Below Maiji Mountain is Ruiying Temple. Walk on the right side of the temple. On the path, we were greeted by three more Buddhas, Sakyamuni Buddha in the middle, Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva on the left, and Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva on the right. Shakyamuni Buddha looks like a seated statue, and the lower body can no longer be seen clearly. The Buddha is nearly 16 meters tall. The black eyes of the three Bodhisattvas look at everyone who approaches him, and I feel that the Buddha really favors us worldly people.
Stairs and plank roads give us the opportunity to get close to the Buddha. The Buddha’s face is round and plump, smiling yet solemn, his earlobes are plump and drooping, his cassock is fluttering, and his wrinkles are clear and uneven. , reminds people of Wu Dai Dangfeng, the Buddhist beads hanging around his neck are all round and round. In front of these three Buddhas, people look very small, and it is almost impossible to take photos with them. There are three statues in the Buddhist niches, some are five, and some are seven, but most of them are three. The main Buddha sits in the middle, with a sun-drenched pattern behind it. The attendants on both sides stand like a ritual, harmonious and family-like. The atmosphere is very strong. The Buddha statues in the Buddhist niches range from large to small. The large ones are nearly two meters and the small ones are only more than 10 centimeters. 221 Buddhist niches are equivalent to 221 families. Some doors are open but cannot be entered, and it is absolutely impossible to integrate into these families.
The Maijishan Grottoes were built between 384 and 417. It was a turbulent era and an era when heroes emerged in large numbers. After the chaos, you sing and I come on stage. The emperors take turns, and the winds and tides turn, each leading the way for twenty or thirty years. Even the remote nomads are active from time to time under the spotlight in the center of the stage, singing The Wind Rises, The Great River Goes East, and so on. Singing spring flowers and autumn moon, stone carving artists have cast their aesthetic taste in Dunhuang, Datong, Luoyang, and on the stone walls of Tianshui. Jiangshan is so lucky. The flow of time can dilute the bright colors on their clothes, but the rush The smiles on their faces cannot be wiped off; the knife of time can gouge out certain parts of their bodies, but not their lifelike postures and rich and thick souls.
I arrived at the Maijishan Grottoes Scenic Area at nearly 11 o'clock and spent an hour and a half visiting. I thought it would be very tiring going up and down, and the time would be tight. Come down, there is still time to spare. I don’t know what I looked at. There are 10,632 stone statues, large and small, almost all of them smiling. Some are locked in niches, some can only be peeked from outside with the door open, and some are exposed on the surface of the stone wall. Among them, the Seven Buddha Pavilion has three series: upper, middle and lower. The Seven Buddha Pavilion in Cave No. 4 has 757 shadow Buddha statues; the Thousand Buddha Gallery is 32 meters long, and 258 statues are neatly arranged on two levels on the cliff. Statues of gods made of stone and clay; there are more than 3,000 statues of Feitian and Buddha on 18 stone tablets in No. 133 Ten Thousand Buddhas Cave on the West Cliff. How can you see it?
It is impossible to escape the vulgarity, and the poem is left as proof:
There is a solitary stack in Xiaolong Mountain, and there are three Buddhas on Maiji Mountain.
How many famous and wealthy people have looked at the world of Amitabha with a smile.
(2022.6.25. First draft, 6.30.15:33. Second draft)