Maijishan: Clay figures on a wheat-stack cliff

Maijishan stands in Maiji District, Tianshui. Its rounded peak resembles a stack of wheat, the image behind the mountain’s name. The city’s scenic account places the grottoes on this cliff and dates their beginning to the early fifth century. It records 221 caves, 10,632 clay and stone figures, and more than 1,000 square metres of murals. The wider scenic area sits in a humid transition zone crossed by the watershed between the Yangtze and Yellow River systems. The caves are part of a mountain landscape whose forests, streams and mist frame the sheer face of the grottoes.

Maijishan is especially known for clay sculpture, including figures modelled over stone cores. The city’s account traces this sculptural tradition from the fifth through the eighteenth century. In a 2024 interview, researcher Zhang Ming distinguishes 221 niches from the more than 10,000 individual figures and describes the art as mainly clay. The caves sit in the rainy Xiaolongshan forest; some murals have deteriorated, while many clay figures remain. A restored group in Western Wei Cave 123 gives a close view of dress in the sixth century: the boy wears a long robe and an open-crown felt cap, while the girl’s short jacket, high-waisted skirt and shoulder straps preserve details of contemporary clothing.

UNESCO lists Maijishan Cave-Temple Complex as component 1442-028 in the Silk Roads: Routes Network of the Chang’an–Tianshan Corridor, inscribed in 2014. The serial property follows an approximately 5,000-kilometre corridor from Chang’an and Luoyang toward Zhetysu in Central Asia. Its 33 components include capitals, passes, post stations, beacon towers and Buddhist cave temples. Maijishan’s map entry covers 483.71 hectares, with a buffer zone of 1,259.28 hectares. The designation places the cliff within a broad network of routes and sites, while the caves’ clay figures give this particular component its distinctive artistic character.