Tanziling Relief Sculpture

The Relief Sculpture of the Front Side

The relief sculpture circling the Tanziling is called the Runshengyuan, which means the origin of the life. The front side of Tanziling is a giant bulgy copperplate relief sculpture, looking like a volute shell of water turbine. There are three strong men revolving in the water flow hand in hand, like the Buddha's warrior attendant blending with the water, showing the strong spiritual strength of all things on earth living on water. At the two sides of the copper relief sculpture, the upper side is a tiger and the lower side is a phoenix, displaying the geological location and cultural background of three gorges project. Because in the ancient time, some of the Chu People worshiped the phoenix, and the Ba people admired the tiger, while three gorges dam is just between the Ba and Chu, showing the three gorges dream of millions of people. At the upper right side of the relief sculpture, there is a man and an image of Dayu, overlapping to be the characters of Da (big) or Fu (husband). The man has a footing stone drill core in his hand, symbolizing the scientific belief of modern water-power utilization. While in the hand of Dayu, there is a shovel, revealing the long tradition of managing the flood of Chinese nation. The background of the man and Dayu is the scene of the construction of Three Gorges Dam.

The Relief Sculpture of the Back Side

Corresponding to the relief sculpture of the front side, the center of the back side of Tanziling is the image of the ox assisting Dayu to control the flood and exploit the gorge. Extending from the two sides, there are the gorge stones and flowing water. On the gorge stones, there are the ancient paintings, the lower part of which is a white bone pagoda, where buried the dead boat trackers, boatmen and drowned men. There are some children, broken houses floating on the flood, making the atmosphere depress and solemn and stirring, being the reflection of the conditions of three gorges area for thousands of years. At the two sides, there is a small celestial body made up of the sun, moon, Polaris and the Plough. The flowing water links the upper and lower parts of Tanziling together, showing the strong cultural connotation of heaven-earth-man unity. With an altitude of 262.48 meters, Tanziling is a commanding height of three gorges project.