The Dazu Rock Carvings: A Stone Sermon in the Hills Near Chongqing

Dazu is a rural district about 165 kilometres west of the centre of Chongqing. In its hills are 75 protected sites of rock carving, with some 50,000 figures and more than 100,000 characters of inscription. They were made between the seventh and the thirteenth centuries, and above all in two periods: the late ninth century and the Song dynasty of the twelfth and thirteenth. UNESCO inscribed them as a World Heritage site in 1999.

The great cave temples of northern China, at Dunhuang, Yungang and Longmen, belong to an earlier age. Dazu is a late chapter of that tradition, and one of the most approachable.

Three teachings

What sets Dazu apart is its subject matter. The carvings are mostly Buddhist, but Taoist deities and Confucian figures appear beside them, sometimes in the same niche. UNESCO described the site as outstanding evidence of the harmonious synthesis of the three teachings.

They are also unusually worldly. Among the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are scenes of ordinary life, including a herdsman with his buffalo and scenes of family duty. The sculptors used the life of a Sichuan village to teach doctrine.

Baodingshan

The principal site is Baoding Mountain. Here the carvings line a U-shaped valley about 500 metres long, in a continuous sequence meant to be read in order. The scheme is credited to one man, the monk Zhao Zhifeng, who gave some seventy years to it in the Song period.

The sequence includes a wheel of life held in the jaws of a demon; a reclining Buddha entering nirvana, only part of whose body is shown, the rest suggested by the rock; the levels of hell, with their punishments shown in detail; and a seated Guanyin with a thousand hands spread across the rock like a peacock’s tail. Much of the original paint and gilding survives or has been restored.

Beishan

The second site, the North Mountain, is a cliff about 300 metres long, with carvings from the ninth to the twelfth centuries in several hundred niches. The work here is smaller in scale and finer in detail. The figures of Guanyin of the Song period are among the most admired sculptures in China.

For travellers

Dazu is a day trip from Chongqing and can also be visited on the way to or from Chengdu. Baodingshan needs about two hours and Beishan one; the two are some distance apart and require transport between them. Start with Baodingshan, early, before the tour groups arrive.

The carvings are in the open air under overhanging rock. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons, as summers in this region are very hot and humid.