Buddhist Culture of Dazu Grottoes

Dazu Grottoes is the general term of the sculptures and carvings group in the Dazu County of Chongqing. The sculptures and carvings are in the styles of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, among which the Buddhism-styled grottoes account for 80 per cent. Therefore, the sculptures, carvings and statues with high historical and academic values in Dazu Grottoes provide precious information for Buddhist Culture. Buddhist culture is best reflected on the Beishan Mountain and Baoding Mountain.

Buddhist Culture on Beishan Mountain

Beishan Grottoes on Beishan Mountain has 290 shrine caves in all. The most well-known of them is the Xinshenche (the Whee1 of the Universe) Cave. In the centre shrine stands the Buddha, with Jingbaoping, Manjusri, Yuyin Guanyin, Ruyizhu Guanyin, Samantabhadra, Riyue Guanyi. They are created in a symmetrical manner and proper order, as though they were an integral whole. The eight statues of Bodhisattvas have the features of well-proportioned bodies, exquisitely luxurious garments and distinct characters.

Buddhist Culture on Baoding Mountain

Baoding (Treasure Peak) Mountain, fifteen kilometers northeast of Dazu, is well-known for its comprisal of more than ten thousand magnificent sculptures. Those located in Dafowan are best preserved and most numerous. Dafowan is a U-shaped range of hills about fifteen to thirty metres high and some five hundred metres long. The statue carved on the eastern, southern and northern cliffs of the valley are patterned in accordance with the terrain of the hills, resulting in natural and magnificent structure. Consisted of more than 15,000 stone sculptures in l9 groups of the Buddhist stories, the statues in the Baoding Moutain Grottoes look so marvelous that each of them is portrayed in different poses and with different expressions.

Buddhist Music Culture of Dazu Grottoes

There are 19 precious materials of Buddhist music culture in the Dazu Grottoes. These precious materials are distributed in 65 shrines and include Jiyuetian, Jiyueren, Lohan Jiyue, Buddha Jiyue, Tongzi Jiyue and other Jiyue which amount to the number of 151 (Jiyue is a Buddha able to sing and dance). There are 76 different groups with 31 kinds of musical instruments. These musical instruments are 240 in all. The number of the shrines themed on music in Beishanfowan and Baodingfowan are the largest-45.

The music theme is displayed in three ways. The first one is that the Flying Apsaras playing musical instruments. Singing, and dancing, which seems they are about to fly into the Elysian Fields. The second one is that pictures of patterns of different musical instruments are displayed in the Dazu Grottoes. The third way is to use the musical instruments as the conjuring instruments of Buddhist to drive the evils away and conquer the demons.