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Tourist Area of Baodingshan Rock Carvings
The Baodingshan tourist area is located 12 kilometers northeast of the urban area of Dazu District, Chongqing Municipality. It mainly includes the Baodingshan Rock Carvings surrounded by ancient temples that include the Shengshou Temple and the Guangda Temple, and exhibition area of the Museum of Dazu Rock Carvings, and shopping area consisting of the Song-dynasty-style streets and the Baoding ancient street. It is a tourist area featuring world heritage integrated with sightseeing, tourism, and vacation.
Digital Movies of Dazu Rock Carvings
The digital movies of Dazu Rock Carvings include the 4K movie theatre and the dome theatre. The 4K wide screen movie titled Tianxia Dazu, which means Abundance under Heaven, 23 minutes in length, is telling a magnificent historic story of the carvings in Dazu over one thousand years ago and also a manifestation of the craftsmanship spirit of pioneering and creation in ancient China, giving audiences an insight into the historic and cultural values of the Dazu Rock Carvings in the Chinese history of building cave temples.
The 8K dome movie the Dazu Rock Carvings, 18 minutes in length, shows dozens of exquisite cave temples among the Dazu Rock Carvings from many perspectives, and gives audiences a complete knowledge of the artistic value and humanistic connotation of the Dazu Rock Carvings as the last monumental work throughout the history of Chinese cave temples, by means of an 8K high resolution picture and a unique immersive experience facilitated by digital technology.
Museum of Dazu Rock Carvings
The Museum of Dazu Rock Carvings is a specialized museum of cave temples. With a construction area of 18000 square meters and an exhibition area of 5000 square meters, the museum shows the main development history of world cave temple art and the basic characteristics of Dazu Rock Carvings. Drawing on architectural images from the Dazu Rock Carvings, the museum building embodies the unique architectural style of the Tang and the Song Dynasty.
Baodingshan Rock Carvings
The Baodingshan Rock Carvings was first built under the direction of the well-known Buddhist Monk Zhao Zhifeng from the Chunxi reign to the Chunyou reign in the Southern Song Dynasty (1174-1252 A.D.). Taking the Dafowan (Big Buddha Bend) and the Xiaofowan (Small Buddha Bend) as its central parts,it is a large-scale cave temple site surrounded by over ten small-size sites of cave temples within 2.5 kilometers. Thousands of sandstone sculptures with rich themes and strong secular flavor here stand out as the last monumental works among the Chinese cave temple art history. In 1961, it was listed as one of the first group of key cultural heritage sites that were under national protection. In 1999, it was inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO.
SHENGSHOU TEMPLE
Shengshou Temple borders the Ritual Site of Patriarch Liu (also named Xiaofowan or Small Buddha Bend) to the east and has been separated by a visitors’ passage to the west. It was built under the direction of Buddhist Monk Zhao Zhifeng in Chunxi reign of the Southern Song Dynasty (1174-1189 A.D.). At the end of the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, the temple had been destroyed twice in wars, but rebuilt twice respectively in early Ming and early Qing Dynasty and finally become a well-known Buddhist sacred place in east Sichuan. The existing building group was constructed in the Qing Dynasty and adopted the Seven-hall Layout of Monastery in Han Region during the Song Dynasty. Based on the mountain, seven halls are arranged on the central axis, including the Front Gate Hall, Heavenly Kings Hall, Indra Hall, Mahavira Hall, Three-period Buddhas Hall, Vimalakirti Hall. With wing-rooms on both sides, the temple displays a well-proportioned multi-depth quadrangle courtyard layout, which is an outstanding representative of the ancient mountain temple. The temple collects rich historic remains, including stone sculptures, wood carvings, clay sculptures, tablets and ink paintings from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. In 1961, it was listed as a national key cultural heritage site under national protection.
XIAOFOWAN
As the second largest site and an important part of the Baodingshan Rock Carvings, Xiaofowan (also Small Buddha Bend) is located opposite to the Dafowan and on the right side of Shengshou Temple, which is formerly known as the Ritual Site of Patriarch Liu or the Grand Treasure Pavilion. It is a construction made of square stones, and all statues here were carved on the flat surface integrated by many square stones. There are nine numbered Niches and Caves in total, including Tripitaka Catalogue Pagoda, Illustrations to Episodes from the Scripture on Buddha Requiting Parental Kindness Through Skillful Means, Ritual Site of Vairocana and Cave of Three Worthies of Huayan, etc.
Historically, the Xiaofowan, together with the Shengshou Temple, was regarded as a ritual site set by Zhao Zhifeng for Buddhist votaries’ making vow, practicing Buddhist law, and getting disciplined by others. Being only different in the layout and number of sculptures, the Xiaofowan is also considered as a miniature of the Dafowan (the Baodingshan Rock Carvings) as they have the same content of carvings.