Pingchang Orchid Grass Kongshan Cave

Pingchang Orchid Grass Kongshan Cave

Kongshan Cave is located on a semi-rocky outcrop beneath Brown Bag Ridge in Group 7, Liren Village, Orchid Grass, overlooking the Caojiabei Beach of the Ba River. Formed in ancient times, the cave boasts a spacious and grand interior, vast and profound, often described as “thunder crashing over Leishan while Kongshan echoes,” with its deepest section extending around ten Chinese miles — its bottom remains unexplored to this day. It is known as the most magnificent karst cave in Pingchang.

The Kongshan Temple was built against the mountain and beside the water, with its main gate facing north. The eastern side uses a natural rock wall as part of its structure, while the other three sides are framed with wooden supports. The entire temple covers an area of 70 square meters and consists of four tiled rooms. The first room upon entering serves as a guest room, where the religious master Xiong XX lived for about five months each year. The middle room functions as the main hall, divided across two levels. Upstairs, statues include the Jade Emperor, Tai Bai Star God, and Sun and Moon Bodhisattvas; downstairs houses over 30 deities of the Potala Rock and Guanyin, including major and minor figures. On the left is the God of Guan Yu, on the right the Goddess of Childbirth, and to the south, a wooden-carved Plague Ancestor Bodhisattva. Two small rooms on the right side of the main hall are the living quarters and kitchen of the elderly nun Zhao Hongzhen. In total, the temple enshrines 30 deities across 16 altars. During the Republican era, morning bells and evening drums rang out, incense smoke filled the air, and devout worshippers from nearby areas frequented the temple for blessings and disaster relief, creating a constant flow of visitors. In summer, local elites and officials hosted banquets here to escape the heat, making it a lively place.

The mysterious veil of Kongshan Cave was once explored by a group of brave adventurers. Armed with the detection tools of that era — smoke ropes, vines, bamboo strips, and lit cypress torches — they ventured deep into the cave, but all efforts ended in failure and disappointment. According to exploration records, the cave’s overall structure is divided into an outer cave and an inner cave, with two entrances to the outer cave: one at the front and one on the right.

A mere ten stone steps lead down to the bottom of the cave. The cave has a domed shape, approximately 10 meters in height, 75 meters in width, and 70 meters in length, wider at the entrance and narrowing inward. Along the inner wall, there are three smaller caves, collectively referred to as the inner cave. The left opening is about 1.8 meters long and 1.2 meters wide; after traversing over a hundred natural stone steps, you’ll reach a sandy beach and an underground river. The beach spans roughly 60 meters in width and 200 meters in length, while the icy cold underground river is impassable, shrouded in darkness, with chilling drafts and fluttering bats — an eerie sight. The middle cave is approximately 2 meters high, 7 meters wide, and over 200 meters deep. There is a pond 18 meters from the cave mouth, 0.7–2.2 meters deep, known as the water cave. The narrowest point is 5–6 meters, while the widest exceeds 200 meters. The stone walls on both sides house bats, the cave bottom is arched and smooth, and the highest point between the bottom and ceiling reaches 8 meters, the lowest only 1.8 meters. The right cave opening is 6 meters wide, with a highest point of 1.8 meters, tilting from higher on the left to lower on the right forming an irregular triangle. There is no standing water inside all year round, earning it the name of the dry cave. It extends about 120 meters in depth, with an arched ceiling averaging around 30 meters in width, peaking in the center and sloping downward toward the edges, the highest point being 3 meters and the lowest 0.8 meters.

Historically, Kongshan Cave served as a refuge for many during wartime to escape chaos and disaster. In the fourth year of the Daoguang Emperor’s reign (1824), 108 villagers including Liu Shunjie, Liu Qian’en, Wang Xiangyi, Huang Rongchang, Cao Dingxi, Guo Guangzhen, and others contributed funds to reinforce Kongshan Cave. They built a new cave gate, corner paths, and watchtowers, keeping a permanent earthen cannon and more than ten firearms. In the sixth year of the Tongzhi Emperor’s reign (1866), over 40 families of the Liu, Wang, and Zhao surnames reinforced the site again, reconstructing the cave gate and adjacent areas with stone slabs. They added observation holes above the gate and set up artillery platforms flanking the watchtower, and carved over 50 stone steps leading directly to Kongshan Temple. New statues of the Earth God, Fangji, and Skanda were also installed. Liu YuanKui wrote in a pavilion inscription: “...This Kongshan Cave in our region lies within a renowned area, with a structure of exceptional sturdiness. In times of past adversity, it was fortified and helped people survive... Today we prepare resources to repair it, fearing future calamities, to prevent disaster before it strikes...”

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the incense offerings at Kongshan Temple declined, and the elderly nun passed away. During the campaign to eliminate the “Four Olds,” the clay deities turned to mud, the stone-carved gods lost limbs, and the wooden Plague Ancestor statue was burned. In 1971, the Orchid Grass Supply and Marketing Cooperative established several factories here — a zero factory, a farm tool repair works, and a pickled vegetable plant — which were later shut down due to raw material shortages and poor economic returns.