Unearthly Delights 1

Mati Temple

It was the Labour Day public holiday, and the hordes were out in force.

I whizzed down the cold hills from the Mati Scenic Area, after being blown away by the magnificent grottoes there, and stopped near Mati village, at the famous Temple.

Mati means "horse hoof," and the legend goes that in ancient times the Tibetan King Gesar rode his winged flying horse Tianma down from the heavens, and it left a huge hoof print on the stone here, which became a revered site, and eventually they built a temple around it.

The temple itself is another Buddhist masterpiece. Much of it is carved and built into a cliff face. They didn't do temple building the easy way in those days, they demonstrated their true devotion through stunning architectural and artistic feats.

Besides the cliff temples, there's a bunch of other ancient temple buildings in the compound.

The main gate

Just imagine trying to build these things. With no machinery.

It's auspicious to drink the water from this well.

This is an example of how safe and secure I feel here. I left my bike outside the temple, up against a tree, fully loaded up, without even a wheel lock on it, and went in to explore the temple for ages. I knew nothing would be touched.

It was a pretty straightforward ride to Zhangye that afternoon, my next destination, a town of about half a million. It was about  60 clicks, but some of that involved a nice roll down some long gentle slopes. The elevation of Mati is about 2600m, Zhangye is way lower, at about 1500.

Cute mudbrick villages

The blossoms are still out

Eventually I reached the dry, vast plains

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Go to Part 2