Reclining Buddha Cliff Carvings

Reclining Buddha Cliff Carvings

The Reclining Buddha Cliff Carvings are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Reclining Buddha Temple is located in Wolfo Gully, Baimiao Township, Anyue County, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province. It lies 40 kilometers north of Anyue County’s urban area, 5 kilometers from the town center of Baimiao Township, and at the border between Anyue and Anju.

The cliff carvings and sutra inscriptions of the Reclining Buddha Temple date back to before the 11th year of the Kaiyuan era (723) during the Tang Dynasty, with large-scale carving and inscription activities taking place during the Kaiyuan period, gradually declining from the Song Dynasty onward. They were jointly created by the eminent Tang Dynasty monk Xuan Ying and later monks and laypeople. It is a leisure and resort tourism area that integrates stone carving culture with natural ecological landscapes. Along the approximately one-kilometer-long Wolfo Gully, on both sides of the cliffs about 20 meters high, there are numerous cliff carvings and stone sutras created during the Tang, Five Dynasties, and Northern Song periods. The carving area extends 865 meters, featuring 142 niches. There are 1,613 stone carvings of Buddhas, 15 caves of stone sutras, as well as dozens of stone inscriptions, steles, inscribed pillars, and images of mythical beasts. The cliff carvings mainly feature Buddhist Chan (Zen) themes, along with some Esoteric Buddhist carvings, covering as many as 57 subjects.

The figures, objects, and animals depicted in the carvings are strikingly lifelike, full of vitality, diverse in expression, and naturally expressive, representing some of the finest works from the peak period of China’s middle-era stone carving art. Attractions include: the Shakyamuni Preaching Scene, the Nirvana Transformation (Reclining Buddha), the Trikaya Buddhas, Maitreya Buddha, Thousand Buddhas, Thousand-Armed Guanyin, inscribed pillars, and stone sutras. The stone carvings of the Reclining Buddha Temple are especially renowned worldwide for the uniquely composed, ingeniously conceived, and exquisitely carved “Shakyamuni Nirvana Scene” (Reclining Buddha) (Figure 1), which is the largest full-body stone carving of a reclining Buddha from the Tang Dynasty in China. It is the only left-side reclining “Nirvana Scene” in China, and the earliest and most complete full-body reclining Buddha statue still in existence. It rivals the Leshan Giant Buddha—the world’s largest Maitreya sitting Buddha—in aesthetic and historical value, offering exceptional artistic appreciation and historical research significance.

The entire ensemble of carvings was designed with ingenuity, taking advantage of the mountain terrain and featuring bold innovations. It consists of three groups of carvings, covering over 300 square meters of the cliff face. The upper group depicts the scene of Shakyamuni preaching before his nirvana; the middle group features the Tang Dynasty “Shakyamuni Nirvana Scene” reclining Buddha carving. The reclining Buddha faces south and lies on its side along the rock wall, stretching 21.3 meters in length, with a head 3 meters long and shoulders 3.1 meters wide. With gracefully arched brows, full cheeks, an exposed chest, and muscular form, the figure is dignified in posture. Its head points east and feet west, lying on its left side—a unique and mysterious departure from Buddhist scripture descriptions of “head to the north, right side reclining” and “pillowing the hands with both feet stacked.” The lower group illustrates stories from Buddhist sutra transformations. The Reclining Buddha Temple houses 15 caves containing over 400,000 characters of stone-carved sutras. These are inscribed in regular or running script, carved vertically from right to left, with neat handwriting and exquisite craftsmanship, exemplifying typical Tang Dynasty calligraphy. The carving technique and calligraphy are recognized as a world-class masterpiece. The collection mainly includes over 70 titles and more than 300 volumes and fascicles such as the *Buddha Names Sutra*, *Mahaparinirvana Sutra*, *Lotus Sutra*, *Amitabha Sutra*, *Tanzang Sutra*, *Golden Light Sutra*, and *Vimalakirti Sutra*, ranking first in China. The sutra carvings provide invaluable primary sources for the study of Buddhist scriptures and the correction of sutra editions. Among them, the *Tanzang Sutra* carved in Cave 73 is a unique edition in Chinese Buddhist canon collections; the preface to *The Catalog of All Sutras and Treatises* written by the famous Tang Dynasty monk Jing Tai and carved in Cave 46 is the only surviving standalone version among China’s stone-carved sutras, hailed by experts as “the only one of its kind in the world.”

The stone carvings and sutra inscriptions of the Reclining Buddha Temple scenic area are precious physical materials for studying the political, economic, cultural, and religious development of China during the Tang, Five Dynasties, and Northern Song periods. It is a renowned tourist destination in central Sichuan.

Prefecture/City: Ziyang City

Address: Baimiao Township, Anyue County

Ticket: 12 RMB per person

Opening Hours: 8:00 – 19:30

Tourism Complaint Hotline: 028–24520973 Fax: 028-24536626

Postal Code: 642350

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units