The Yulin Caves (Chinese: 榆林窟; pinyin: Yulin kū) is a Buddhist cave temple site in Guazhou County, Gansu Province, China. The site is located some 100 km (62 mi) east of the oasis town of Dunhuang and the Mogao Caves. It takes its name from the elm trees lining the Yulin River, which flows through the site and separates the two cliffs from which the caves have been excavated. The forty-two caves house some 250 polychrome statues and 4,200 m (45,000 sq ft) of wall paintings, dating from the Tang dynasty to the Yuan dynasty (seventh to fourteenth centuries). The site was among the first to be designated for protection in 1961 as a Major National Historical and Cultural Site. In 2008 the Yulin Grottoes were submitted for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Chinese Section of the Silk Road.

Most of the caves take the form of an entrance corridor, antechamber, and main chamber. In three caves, a central pier was left intact during excavation then carved with niches on all four sides. A number of caves were reworked and repainted in later periods, since the site remained in use throughout the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Western Xia, and Yuan dynasties. It fell into disuse during the Ming dynasty. There were early efforts to restore the caves at the time of the Qing dynasty and several new caves also date to this period. More recently, under the management of the Dunhuang Academy, the focus has been on preventive conservation through consolidation of the cliff face and controlling access.

The paintings are Buddhist with some secular scenes, the former including buddhas, bodhisattvas, apsara, and jataka tales; and the latter, donor portraits, go players, representatives of China's ethnic minorities, marked out by their hair styles and dress, farming scenes such as milking a cow, wine-making, a smelting furnace, and a marriage ceremony; depictions of musicians and dancers help break down the distinction between the sacred and the profane. The paintings are not frescoes but instead executed on an earthen render with mineral and organic pigments and gum or glue binders.

The forty-two caves are dated as follows, based largely on the style of the paintings and their accompanying inscriptions (in Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Tangut, and Old Uighur):

Cave	Construction	Restorations	Former Numbering	Image
Cave 1	Qing
Cave 2	Western Xia	Yuan, Qing	C1
Cave 3	Western Xia	Yuan, Qing	C2
Cave 4	Yuan	Qing	C3
Cave 5	Tang	Qing
Cave 6	Tang	Five Dynasties, Song, Western Xia, Qing, Republic of China	C4
Cave 7	Qing
Cave 8	Qing
Cave 9	Qing
Cave 10	Western Xia	Yuan, Qing	C5
Cave 11	Qing
Cave 12	Five Dynasties	Qing	C6
Cave 13	Five Dynasties	Song, Qing	C7
Cave 14	Song dynasty	Qing, Republic of China	C8
Cave 15	Mid-Tang	Song, Western Xia, Yuan, Qing	C9
Cave 16	Five Dynasties	Early Republic of China	C10
Cave 17	Tang	Five Dynasties, Song, (date unclear), Qing	C11
Cave 18	Five Dynasties	Western Xia, Yuan	C11b
Cave 19	Five Dynasties	Qing	C12
Cave 20	Tang	Five Dynasties, Song, Qing	C13
Cave 21	Tang	Song, (date unclear), Qing	C14
Cave 22	Tang	Song, Western Xia, Qing	C15
Cave 23	Tang	Song, Qing	C16
Cave 24	Tang		C17b
Cave 25	Mid-Tang, reigned by Tibet Empire	Five Dynasties, Song, Qing	C17
Cave 26	Tang	Five Dynasties, Song, (date unclear), Qing	C18
Cave 27	Tang		C18b
Cave 28	Early-Tang	Song, Western Xia, Qing	C19
Cave 29	Western Xia	Yuan, Qing	C20
Cave 30	Late-Tang	Song	C20
Cave 31	Five Dynasties	Qing	C21
Cave 32	Five Dynasties	Song	C22
Cave 33	Five Dynasties	Qing	C23
Cave 34	Tang	Five Dynasties, Song, Qing	C24
Cave 35	Tang	Five Dynasties, Song, Qing	C25
Cave 36	Tang	Five Dynasties, Song, Qing	C26
Cave 37	Qing
Cave 38	Tang	Five Dynasties, Qing	C27
Cave 39	Tang	(date unclear), Yuan, Qing	C28
Cave 40	Five Dynasties	Qing	C29
Cave 41	Five Dynasties	Yuan, Qing
Cave 42	High-Tang

• Mogao Caves
• Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China
• National Heritage Sites in Gansu Province
• International Dunhuang Project
• World Heritage Sites in China

• Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road (1st Conference) (GCI)
• Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road (2nd Conference) (GCI)
• Images of the Site and the Area (National Institute of Informatics)
• (in Chinese) Yulin Caves (Dunhuang Academy)

40°3′33″N 95°56′10″E / 40.05917°N 95.93611°E / 40.05917; 95.93611