Chùa Kim Tháp

Jinta Temple is a cave temple complex on the red sandstone cliffs southeast of the Mati Temple cluster in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County south of Zhangye, with two main caves carved directly into the steep rock face. Founded during the Northern Liang period, the temple preserves a substantial body of early Buddhist sculpture and is one of the more significant satellites of the broader Mati Temple area for visitors interested in the religious art of the Hexi Corridor.

The two main caves contain more than two hundred carved figures, accumulated across the centuries of the complex's religious use, and the sculpture as a whole is considered an important regional example of early Buddhist devotional art in this part of Gansu. Among the most discussed elements of the Jinta Temple caves are the high-relief flying apsaras, carved figures of celestial beings depicted in flight, which are recognized as a distinctive regional variant of a motif found at many Buddhist cave sites across China but rendered here in a particularly full, sculptural form that has been praised as among the finest of its type.

The wider setting of the caves also contributes to their appeal. The Dadu Ma village in which the temple sits is set in a landscape of fields and forested slopes in the Qilian foothills, and the area is known locally for its scenery across the four seasons rather than only for its architectural and sculptural heritage. The combination of cave art and rural mountain setting makes the visit as much about the wider landscape as about the caves themselves.

For a Zhangye itinerary, Jinta Temple is best treated as a stop for travelers with a serious interest in early Buddhist cave art who are already visiting the broader Mati Temple complex, rather than as a standalone destination. It rewards visitors with the time to engage with the sculpture and the wider landscape of the surrounding Qilian foothills.