Visit Maijishan to see China's earliest transformation paintings!

Maijishan Grottoes is a large grotto temple on the Silk Road. It was first built during the Later Qin of the Sixteen Kingdoms (384–417 AD) and is one of the representative grotto groups of the Northern Dynasties in China. Grotto 127 is the most famous of the Maijishan Grottoes. The Shanzi Jataka painting is composed of scenes such as the king's outing, hunting, accidentally shooting Shanzi who was fetching water, visiting blind parents, and the gods saving him. In Buddhist statues, Kasyapa and Ananda stand on the left and right of the Buddha as his disciples. Kasyapa is the oldest of the Buddha's ten disciples and is known as the "First of the Arhats." He is famous for his strict asceticism and meditation. The common fate bird has two heads and one body. It is said that "when one head prospers, the other prospers; when one head dies, the other dies." In Buddhist stories, the two heads of this bird are jealous of each other and fight, eventually eating poison and dying. The boy has one body and two heads, with a face like a full moon, reflecting the Mahayana Buddhist idea of "neither one nor two."