The Dazu stone carvings at Chongqing are one of ancient China’s most valuable treasures. They were declared a National Key Cultural Relics Protected Unit in 1961, and in 1999 they were listed as a World Culture Heritage Site.
These carvings are distributed over 41 places in Dazu County, Sichuan. Some 50,000 carvings were begun in 892 AD and carved in the ensuing Five Dynasties and Northern and Southern Song, or over a span of some 250 years. In addition to Buddhist and Daoist art, there are also Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian statues that stand together in one grotto of which the ‘Mizong’ or Tantric (esoteric) Buddhist statues predominate. The largest concentration and largest scale of carvings are at Baoding and Beishan.
