Buddha Bay Cliff Carvings

Buddha Bay Cliff Carvings

The Buddha Bay Cliff Carvings are a cultural relic protection unit of Chengdu City.

The Buddha Bay Cliff Carvings are located in Buddha Bay, Qiaolou Village, Baiyun Township, Pujiang County. The carvings were created during the Tang Dynasty, with 49 niches and 253 statues remaining today. Among them, the large stone incense burner, meditation cave, Ashoka Pagoda, niche of Seven Buddhas and Ten Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the Six Paths of Reincarnation are exceptionally unique — the demoness stone carving is particularly rare in China. In 1988, the People's Government of Pujiang County designated it as a county-level cultural relic protection unit.

The large stone incense burner carving was sculpted from a single piece of rock in Buddha Bay. This incense burner is a round sculpture, standing 0.9 meters high with a diameter of 1.6 meters. Its mouth is circular, supported by eight animal-shaped feet at the base, recreating the style of the Tang Dynasty.

The Buddha Bay cliff grottoes in Pujiang date back to the Tang Dynasty. Based on the extent of damage and weathering, experts believe the carvings were destroyed during the “Huichang Persecution of Buddhism.” According to remnants of Qing Dynasty color pigments found in the niches, experts infer that after the Qing Dynasty, the grottoes gradually became buried under silt and overgrown vegetation. In 1983, the Buddha Bay cliff grottoes were rediscovered, unveiling their sacred splendor and emerging from obscurity to be seen by the world once again.

On May 2, 2018, the People's Government of Chengdu City designated it as part of the sixth batch of municipal-level cultural relic protection units in Chengdu.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Municipal-Level Cultural Relic Protection Units in Chengdu