Longguang Guanyin Cave Site

Longguang Guanyin Cave Site

The Longguang Guanyin Cave Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Longguang Guanyin Cave is located in the heart of the Eastern Peak Forest in southwestern Guizhou, in Longguang Town, eastern Yilong New Area, which is part of the secondary urban core of Yilong New Area, about 32 kilometers from Xingyi City.

The Guanyin Cave is located on a small karst remnant hill within a trough-valley basin. The cave entrance is 12 meters high, approximately 20 meters wide, with an oblique depth of about 15 meters, facing south, and stands about 20 meters above the basin. On the western side, there is a through cave, 8 meters high and over 5 meters wide, which extends inward at a slope. Five meters inside, there is a skylight, and groundwater seeps out at 20 meters. The entire cave is well-ventilated, sunny, with moderate humidity, making it suitable for ancient humans to inhabit and survive.

The Guanyin Cave is located on a small karst remnant hill within a trough-valley basin. The cave entrance is 12 meters high, approximately 20 meters wide, with an oblique depth of about 15 meters, facing south, and stands about 20 meters above the basin. On the western side, there is a through cave, 8 meters high and over 5 meters wide, which extends inward at a slope. Five meters inside, there is a skylight, and groundwater seeps out at 20 meters. The entire cave is well-ventilated, sunny, with moderate humidity, making it suitable for ancient humans to inhabit and survive.

The cultural deposit layer is roughly triangular in shape, nearly brown in color, covering an area of about 200 square meters with a thickness of more than 3 meters. It is initially divided into 9 layers: the surface layer is covered with travertine limestone crusts, while layers 7 and 9 consist of ash, each 10 to 30 centimeters thick. Apart from the surface layer, all other layers contain varying degrees of cultural relics. The unearthed relics include more than 400 stone artifacts, 7 bone tools, fossils of more than 10 types of animals, as well as a large number of animal bone fragments and traces of fire use. Fire use evidence includes ashes, burnt bones, and charcoal fragments. The abundant ash remains prove that ancient humans not only knew how to use fire but also how to preserve it. The large quantity of shellfish fossil remains is rare among contemporaneous sites in Guizhou, indicating that the humans living in Guanyin Cave at the time, while engaging in hunting and gathering, also foraged in water bodies. The Guanyin Cave cultural site dates back to the Late Paleolithic Age, approximately over 10,000 years ago.

On November 2, 1985, the People’s Government of Guizhou Province announced that the Longguang Guanyin Cave Ancient Cultural Site in Anlong County was designated as a Provincial-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit. In January 1986, the People’s Government of Anlong County erected a blue-stone stele at Guanyin Cave with inscribed text, and assigned specific personnel to guard and protect the site. According to archaeologists from the Guizhou Provincial Museum who conducted on-site excavations, the unearthed relics included stone artifacts, bone tools, animal fossils, animal bone fragments, and traces of fire use. Based on these findings, it was determined that the Longguang Guanyin Cave Ancient Cultural Site belonged to the Late Paleolithic Age, with humans having lived in the cave approximately 10,000 years ago.

In May 2013, the Longguang Guanyin Cave Site was designated by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Guizhou Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units