Baoding Mountain Grottoes

Baoding Mountain is located at the Baoding Township and 15 kilometers from Dazu County. Baoding Mountain Grottoes includes Dafowan and Xiaofo Wan. It started in 1179 in the Song Dynasty on the initiative of Zhao Zhifeng, a noted monk, and the work lasted more than 70 years, completed in 1249. They were carvings depicting complete performances of Buddhist rites of Mi Sect. Meanwhile, the carvings are the essence of Dazu Grottoes and lead the grotto art of China to the top.

Shengshou Temple

It was built against the mountain with grand and magnificent view. It used to be destroyed by war during Yuan Dynasty and rebuilt during Ming and Qing Dynasty. There are main gate, Tianwang Hall (Hall of the Celestial Kings), Dishi Hall, Daxiong Hall (Grand Hall), Sanshi Hall, Randeng Hall and Weimo Hall remained, covering an area of 1631.68 square meters.

Dafowan

Dafowan is a place holding complete performances of Buddhist rites, locating near Shengshou Temple. The face of the cliff is about 500 meters long and 8-25 meters high. The sculptures are carved on the faces of eastern, southern and northern cliffs. The entire carving looks like a paiting telling different Buddhist stories to visitors.

Xiaofowan

Xiaofowan is an inner courtyard for believers to do Buddhist practices, locating on the right of Shengshou Temple. The main building is a stone terrace. The terrace is 2.31 meters high, 16.5 meters high. Walls and chambers are built with boulder strips and Buddha sculptures are carved on them.

The Classic Carvings of Baoding Mountain Grottoes

The Sutra about the Deep Kindness of Parents: It presents the kindness of parents through telling stories about Praying for Kid, Pregnant, Giving Birth and Breeding Children.

Cowherd: It is about 30 meters long. Forests, springs, hills and creeks are carved to represent the peaceful farm life of ancient people.

The Masterpieces of Baoding Mountain Grottoes

The Thousand-hand Bodhisattva: The Thousand-hand Bodhisattva, a sculpture covering 88 square meters of the face of a cliff has 1,007 hands and there is one eye in each hand. It is the best Thousand-hand Bodhisattva in China and also one of the top Buddhist art masterpieces in the world.

The Sleeping Buddha on Baoding is the biggest sculpture of Dazu Grottoes with a length of 31 meters. According to Buddhist Scripture, it should be officailly called The Nirvana of Shakya. Nirvana is the highest level of Buddhism which means that the Buddhist practice is fulfilled and a man can be freed from the suffering sea of life and death, and also other desires and anxiety.

The shrine carving about hell: There are 18 levels of hell. Each of them is gruesome and horrible. It describes many frightening punishments, such as saw dismemberment, ice torture, dagger torture and so on.

Yuanjue Cave Sculptures: Carvings of the cave are delicate and exquisite. The clothes of the buddha is like silk and the Pedestal seems to be made of wood. A skylight is carved to make the cave more mysterious.