The Dazu Rock Carvings () are a series of Chinese religious sculptures and carvings and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Dazu District, Chongqing, China. The carvings date back as far as the 7th century AD, depicting and influenced by Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist beliefs. Some are in rock-cut cave shrines, in the usual Chinese Buddhist style, but many others are rock reliefs carved into the open rock faces. Listed as a World Heritage Site in 1999, the Dazu Rock Carvings are made up of 75 protected sites containing some 50,000 statues, with over 100,000 Chinese characters forming inscriptions and epigraphs. The sites are located in Chongqing Municipality within the steep hillsides throughout Dazu District, located about 165 kilometers west of the urban area of Chongqing. The highlights of the rock grotto are found on Mount Baoding and Mount Beishan.

Description

The Dazu Rock Carvings comprise 5 locations in Dazu District, Chongqing Municipality: Beishan, Baodingshan, Nanshan, Shizhuanshan, and Shimenshan.

  • Baodingshan (Baoding Mountain) includes carvings in a U-shaped valley near the Longevity Pavilion, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. Stretching for 500 meters, the carved figures depict themes from Tantric Buddhism in addition to secular life.

The carvings were listed as a World Heritage Site in 1999, citing "…their aesthetic quality, their rich diversity of subject matter, both secular and religious, and the light that they shed on everyday life in China during this period. They provide outstanding evidence of the harmonious synthesis of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism."

See also

  • Dazu Lotus Manor, a nearby attraction
  • Tianlongshan Grottoes

References

  • UNESCO World Heritage Centre page
  • Wisdom embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a collection catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the Dazu Rock Carvings