Jiangjin Grand Buddha Temple Cliff Carvings

Era: Southern Song to Republic of China   Type: Grotto Temples and Stone Carvings   Region: Jiangjin District, Chongqing   Batch: Seventh Batch The Jiangjin Grand Buddha Temple Cliff Carvings are located in Liangting Group, Shimen Community, Shimen Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing. Originally built during the Ming Dynasty, they were renovated in the eighth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty. Facing south, the carvings are hewn directly into the cliff face. The cliff is 12 meters wide and 30 meters high. Among them, a statue of Guanyin standing on a lotus pedestal is 14.8 meters tall, 5.9 meters wide, and 5.2 meters thick. It is depicted in a half-lotus seated posture, wearing a crown, adorned with necklaces, dressed in a kasaya, and covered in gold leaf and painted colors. On its head sits a smiling arhat. To its left is a stone porcelain vase and to its right a stone ritual object, all carved in high relief approaching round sculpture. There is also a temple facing south, laid out in a traditional three-courtyard style and well-preserved. It was built in the Ming Dynasty and renovated in the Tongzhi era. The main hall, built against the cliff, has a total floor area of about 700 square meters. It features a wooden and stone structure with a seven-tiered hip-and-gable roof. Each wing has decorative upturned eaves crowned with an ornament, and the central part displays a vase. The roof is supported by a post-and-lintel timber frame with seven bays and a system that connects beams and rafters to the stone cliff. The structure uses three columns, with the front facade spanning three bays at 17.6 meters and a depth of 8 meters. The overall height is 9 meters, accessed via a 16-step staircase. The platform base is plain and 1.7 meters high. The side rooms have a wooden and stone structure with a flush-gable roof, a post-and-lintel timber frame, six columns with four intersecting beams, a width of five bays at 17 meters, a depth of one bay at 4 meters, and a total height of 4.5 meters. The enclosing wall is 2.5 meters high, with a stepped staircase of 15 steps and a plain platform base 3.4 meters high. The mountain gate features a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, supported between two columns, with 14 upturned eaves, each topped with an ornamental ridge tile. Inside the temple, there is one stone stele, though the inscriptions have largely weathered away. The carvings are exquisitely crafted and truly magnificent. The architecture represents typical multi-story structures of the Qing Dynasty and is like a pearl embedded along the mighty Yangtze River. The integration of temple and Buddha, heaven and humanity, creates a cultural landscape that is a unique tourist attraction in our district, holding significant cultural and tourism value.