|
The Dazu Rock Carving lies in Dazu County, which is 167 kilometers away from the urban area of Chongqing city and reputed as 'the county of rock carving'. It's most convenient to take a bus from Chongqing to Dazu. It just takes 2 hours’ ride. It's a general designation of over 6000 cliffside stone carved statues distributed in 76 places in the whole Dazu County. The Dazu county covers an area of 1,400 square kilometers (about 540.5 square miles), and a history of 1,230 years since it came into existence in 758 during the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD).The collection is composed of the rock carvings in Beishan, Baodingshan, Nanshan, Shimenshan as well as Shizhuanshan, all of which are demonstration of the highest artistic attainment and most exquisite skills of ancient artists.
The Dazu Rock Carving was firstly excavated at the beginning of the Yonghui time in the Tang Dynasty (about 650AD). Through the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, it became very popular in the Southern Song and Northern Song Dynasties (A.D.960-1278). In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, more statues were carved and finally a large rock-carving group was formed. It is as famous as the Yungang Grotto, the Longmen Grotto,and Dunhuang Grotto. The rock carvings in these places are all very famous both at home and abroad. Among the rock carvings in Dazu, there are more than 5,000 statues and over100, 000 Chinese characters of inscriptions and epigraphs. It was also very rare to find buddhist statues and the Taoist and the Confucian stone figures standing together.
Beishan Rock Carving
Beishan is 2 kilometers (about 1.24 miles) away from the northwest of Dazu County . Beishan of Dazu Rock carving was firstly excavated in the first year (A.D. 892) of the Jingfu reign of the Tang dynasty. Figures in this part are something like 'an Assembly of Oriental Beauty', because they were elaborately carved and well preserved. There located a graceful statue of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, also crowned as 'The Oriental Venus'. Rock carvings in this part reflected the common Buddhist faith. Standing here for a while, one may feel that it is really a Buddhist palace.
 |
Previous article: Ci Qi Kou |
 |
Next article: North Hot Spring Park |
