China: Tour boats await passengers on the Yellow River, at Binglingsi, Yongjing County, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu. The Yellow River is often referred to as 'China's Sorrow' due to frequent devastating floods.

The Yellow River (Huang He), is the most important waterway in China. The region around the confluence of the Huang He and Wei rivers formed the cradle of Chinese civilisation. The river is the third-longest river in Asia, following the Yangtze River and Yenisei River, and the sixth-longest in the world at an estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi).

Binglingsi Shiku (Thousand Buddha Caves) is a collection of caves and grottoes set in an inaccessible canyon by the Yellow River about 80km upstream from Lanzhou. The site's very isolation has protected and preserved Binglingsi, not least from marauding Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 76).

The first Buddhist grottoes at Binglingsi date from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (c. 317 - 420 CE), and construction continued for well over a thousand years throughout the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing eras.

The Bingling caves were often sponsored by wealthy patrons investing some of their Silk Road profits in accruing merit for this life and the next. A total of 183 caves, together with nearly 700 carved stone statues and 82 terracotta sculptures survive, many showing very clear evidence of South Asian Buddhist artistic influences – indeed, art experts agree that Binglingsi is a stylistic midpoint between the former monumental Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, and grotto complexes further east within China at Datong and Longmen.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia