Dazu Rock Carvings

The Dazu Rock Carvings (大足石刻) are one of the finest examples of Buddhist cave sculpture in China and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located about 167 kilometres west of Chongqing city centre, they represent the late flowering of Chinese cave-temple art, created between the 9th and 13th centuries when the tradition was in decline elsewhere in Asia.

The main site at Baodingshan contains the most impressive works: a 31-metre reclining Buddha, scenes of hell designed to terrify sinners into moral behaviour, and a magnificent wheel of life. Unlike the earlier Dunhuang and Yungang caves, the Dazu figures are largely outdoor carvings set in natural rock faces, protected by overhanging cliffs. The site is reachable by bus from Chongqing in about two hours, or by high-speed rail to Dazu North station. Allow a full day.

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A story
The Dazu carvings were largely ignored by Western scholarship until the 1940s, when a Chinese researcher named Liu Changyi spent years documenting them. He found over 50,000 figures carved into cliffs across the Dazu district — Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian figures together, a unique syncretic vision of medieval Chinese spiritual life. The carvings were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.