>>> Pictures of Dazu Stone Carving

Dazu County, 162 km northwest of Chongqing, is very popular for its stone carving Buddha Statues - more than100 locations and 100,000 statues. These sculptures are a mixture of Buddhism. Taoism and Confucianism. Two of the locations are the most noted: Beishan (Northern Hill) and Baodingshan (Treasured Peak Mountain), listed by UNESCO (UN Education, Science and Culture Organization) in 1999 as " the World Cultural Heritage " . The Northern Hill is a km away in the Northwest of the city of Dazu. The first statue was created in late Tang Dynasty (9 century), with more than 10,000 statues. Baodingshan (Treasure Peak Mountain) is 15 km to the Northeast of the city, first sculpted in South Song Dynasty (1179-1249). Centered at Dafowan (Grand Buddha Bay), nearly 10,000 Buddha statues are displayed along a 400 long U shape hill ridge, like a great picture roll unfolding before your eyes! The sculptures belongs to the later period of the grotto arts and indicates the rise of grotto carving in Sichuan after its decline in north China. Among these sculptures, you can see the 31 meter-high Nirvana of Sakyamuni, the 88 square meters " Thousand-Handed Avalokitesvara " and the 7 meter-high " Huayan Three Buddhist Images " as well as the ordinary secular sculptures like " the girl flute-player " , " the girl chicken-raiser " and so on. All these stone sculptures are well structured and vividly made.

Carving figures on cliffs on Baoding Mountain

Carving Buddhist figure on cliffs on Baoding Mountain started in 1179 in the Song Dynasty on the initiative of Zhao Qifeng, a noted Buddist monk, and the work lasted more than 70 years, completed in 1249. they were carvings depicting complete performances of Buddhist rites of the Mi sect, carved in 13 places on cliffs 2.5 kilometers long. Carvings at Dafowan, one of the parts that are open to visitors today, are the central part of the rite performances. On the face of cliffs of 500 meters long and 15 to 30 meters wide at Dafowan, more than 10,000 figures, big or small, have been carved to depict Buddist stories. The carvings can be roughly divided into four parts. Part one is about gods protecting the Buddhist Law and the six transmigrations the principal and subsidiary causes; Part Two is about the Three Sages of Huayan and the Thousand- Hand-Goddess Guanyin-doctrine of the Mi sect; Part Three is about Sakyamuni entering nirvana-the moral norms, which is the center of the center of the rites; Part Four is about examples of Buddhist practices and Buddhist retribution. There is something unusual about Bodhissattva of the Three Sages of Huayan. The Goddess of Wisdom is holding in her hand a tower which is supposed to contain a million sacred Buddhist scriptures, and it is quite different from the usual image of the Guanyin Bodhissattva riding on the back of a lion. The Thousand-Han Guanyin Bodhissattva, a sculpture covering 88 square meters of the face of a cliff, has 1,007 hands, and there is an eye in each hand.

This symbolizes boundless wisdom and gives the message that nothing in the world can escape her notice. There is nothing else in the world like it in scale and in artistic beauty. Sakyamuni entering nirvana, commonly referred to as the reclining Buddha, extending 31 meters at the center of the places, caries the message that the Buddha has reached the highest point of perfecton, pure and haoppy, understanding all, without any desire for any thing. Some other sculptures are also well-carved, interesting and meaningful, for instance, the Hen-wife and the Cowherd.

Stone carving on the cliffs of North Mountain

Stone carving on the cliffs of North Mountain started in the year 895 in the Tang Dynasty on the initiative of Wei Junjing, an official of Changzhou( the present day Dazu County), in praise of Buddhism, and the project completed 250 years later in the Northern Song Dynasty. More than 4,600 figures in 264 snrines have been carved on face of cliffs that is 300 meters ling and 7 meters high. Most of the carvings are images of the Guanyin goddess, together with some tablets and inscriptions of records of some events. The Guanyi goddess, according to Buddhist scripts, can appear in 32 different images, and therefore, the images of the goddess on North Mountain are indeed varied and colorful. In Shrine No.9 beside the Thousand- Hand Guanyin goddess stood a very thin and weak person, showing that the goddess is always ready to help the poor; the Water and Moon Guanyin godess in Shrine No.9, beside the Thousand- Hand Guanyin goddess in Shrine No.113, carved in the Song Dynasty, has a slim figure, which is different from the Tang style in which plump females were regared as more beautiful; the Bead- Counting Guangyin goddessin Shrine No.125, lips slightly closed, with very graceful bearing, was praised by some modern atitsts to be " the charming Guanyin Goddess " . The best carvings are found in Shrine No.136, which were carved between 1142 and 1145 in the Song Dynasty. The eight stone figures in the shrine are all attractive, but in quite different ways. One Guanyin goddess has a sun and a moon in her hands, and is known as the Sun and Moon Guanyin; Samantabhadra, the Buddhist Goddess of Kindess and Happiness, is the images of a beautiful girl of the East, and is known as " Venus of East " , ther are 460 figures in Shrine No.245, and every one of these images is well-carved and true to life. Generally speaking, carving in North Mountain are done in a more careful way than those in Baoding Mountain, and may carvings in North Mountain are rare artistic treasures.

>>> Pictures of Dazu Stone Carving