CHINA 5A TRAVEL
The last great grotto art of the caravan world - over 50,000 Tang-and-Song figures carved and painted into Chongqing's cliffs between the 9th and 13th centuries, led by the golden Thousand-Hand Guanyin and a 31-meter reclining Buddha at Baodingshan.
Dazu Rock Carvings is the umbrella for five cliff-carving sites around Dazu county, Chongqing - Baodingshan, Beishan, Nanshan, Shizhaishan and Shimenshan - inscribed by UNESCO in 1999. Begun in the late Tang and peaking in the Song (9th-13th centuries), they represent the final flowering of Chinese grotto art after Dunhuang, Yungang and Longmen - and the first to fold ordinary secular life into Buddhist scripture.
Baodingshan, the unmissable one, is a 500-meter horseshoe cliff commissioned by the monk Zhao Zhifeng over 70 years. Its niches read like stone comic-books of karma: the 31-meter Reclining Buddha with his audience of half-bodied disciples, the golden Thousand-Hand Guanyin with 830 gilded arms fanning behind her, and the famous Parents' Kindness panels tracing a couple from pregnancy to old age - carved domestic detail unprecedented in sacred art.
Beishan, quieter and 15 km away, holds the most refined Song statuary - crowned Guanyins with shy smiles - and opens at night, lantern-lit. Each carving still wears original pigment: robes in mineral red and green, faces gilded, even the tassels so crisp they seem to stir in the wind.
Highlights
Thousand-Hand Guanyin
Baodingshan's crown: a 88-square-meter gilded wall of Guanyin with 830 radiating arms each holding an implement - a decade-long restoration returned her full gold.
The Reclining Buddha
A 31-meter Sakyamini entering nirvana face-up along the cliff, with 100 half-sunk disciples and bodhisattvas emerging from the rock behind him.
Parents' Kindness panels
Ten scenes of raising a child from pregnancy to old age - pregnancy, nursing, the wedding send-off - the world's most tender Buddhist carving.
The Hell transformations
Baodingshan's courtroom of karma: the mirror of retribution, the ice and boiling cauldrons, and the smiling 'feeding chicken' woman who escapes judgment.
Beishan's crowned Guanyins
The 'Oriental Venus' - Song court beauty carved with downcast lashes and flow crowns; best after dark on the lantern-lit night tour.
Three teachings in one cave
At Shizhaishan, Buddha, Laozi and Confucius share a single cave - the carving record of a uniquely Chinese compromise.
Photo Gallery
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