Tiantishan Caves

The Tiantishan Caves are a progression of shake cut Buddhist give in sanctuaries in the Liangzhou District of Wuwei, Gansu, northwest China. Exhumed from the eastern bluffs of the Huangyang River in the Qilian Mountains from the season of the Northern Liang, cutting, enhancement and consequent alteration of the caverns proceeded through the Northern Wei and Tang to the Qing dynasty. The complex is related to the Liangzhou Caves opened amid the season of Juqu Mengxun "one hundred li toward the south of Liangzhou", as recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms and Fayuan Zhulin. The name Tiantishan comprises of three Chinese characters that actually make an interpretation of as "Stepping stool to Heaven Mountain".

The Tang priest Daoxuan in his Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu attributes the opening of Tiantishan to the Xiongnu ruler of Northern Liang Juqu Mengxun's dedication to "praiseworthy deeds" nearby his longing to keep away from the temporariness of the city by forming caverns from the mountains. Contrary to the record in the Wei Shu of priests and Buddhist instructors moving toward the east after the triumph of the Northern Liang by the Northern Wei and consequent mistreatment, basic, iconographic, and elaborate examination demonstrates that action at the site proceeded.