Dazu Rock Carvings
The Dazu Rock Carvings (大 足 石刻Chinese, Pinyin Dazu Shike, English Dazu Rock Carvings ) are a series of religious sculptures in China, which date back to the 7th century. Her performance is influenced by Buddhist, Confucian and Daoist thought worlds. The tang and song Age cave temples are subsumed under the term.
The sites are on the list of UNESCO world heritage since 1999. The term of the stone carvings of Dazu 75 listed sites are combined, containing an estimated 50,000 statues - which is fully sculpted figures alternate with half-or bas-reliefs - with over 100,000 Chinese characters of inscriptions and epigraphs. The facility is located in steep slopes of the circle given ( near the city of Chongqing). Artistic highlights are the stone carvings of the mountains Baodingshan and Beishan.
The earliest stone carvings were begun 650 in the early Tang Dynasty, but the main creative period began in the late 9th century, when Wei Junjing (韦君靖), Prefect of Changzhou (昌 州), the way for the carvings on Mount Beishan paved and his example was followed after the collapse of the Tang Dynasty officials and members of the nobility, monks and nuns, and ordinary citizens during the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms ( 907-65 ). In the 12th century, during the Song Dynasty, a Buddhist monk named Zhao Zhifeng (赵智凤) began its work on the most elaborate sculptures and carvings on Mount Baodingshan, dedicated to this project 70 years of his life.
The Chinese art historian Li Fangyin has rendered outstanding services to the exploration of the stone carvings.
In addition to the Beishan mountains and Baodingshan there are other sites that are listed in the following table.
The individual sites
- In mountain ( shan For北山): a 300 m long rock wall with more than 10,000 sculptures, which represents more than half of subjects from the Tantric Buddhism
- Mount Baoding ( Baoding Shan宝顶 山): horseshoe-shaped site on the edge of a ravine with two groups of sculptures, which are regarded as the apotheosis of the Chinese Felsschnitzerei, including the " Avalokitesvara with a thousand arms " ( Qianshou Guanyin ) ( in reality there are 1007 ) is particularly noteworthy
- Mountain Nan ( Nan shan南山): a place with sculptures from the 12th century, where mainly Daoist topics
- Mountain Shizhuan ( Shizhuan shan石 篆 山): a place with sculptures from the late 11th century, each representing Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian themes
- Shimen Mountain ( Shimen Shan石门山): a place with sculptures from the first half of the 12th century, in which Buddhist and Daoist topics
The stone carvings ( Beishan and Baodingshan ) are on the list of historic monuments of the People's Republic of China ( 1-45 or 1-46 ) since 1961.