The Dazu rock carvings are a group of sculpture sites in and around Dazu district, west of Chongqing, cut in the cliff faces between roughly the ninth and the thirteenth centuries. They are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and they are made up of five separate clusters: Beishan, Baodingshan, Nanshan, Shimenshan and Shizhuanshan. Most visitors see Beishan and Baodingshan and never reach the others, which is why Shimenshan, on a wooded hill north of the district town, is quiet even in the middle of the season.
What is there
Shimenshan is small - twelve or so niches and a few hundred figures - but it is one of the very few places in China where Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian images are carved together on the same rock face as part of a single programme. Daoist subjects dominate: a seated Jade Emperor with his attendants, the Three Sovereigns, and figures associated with the local popular pantheon, alongside Buddhist niches and figures from the Confucian tradition. It is that mixture, rather than the scale, that makes the site worth the detour, because it is a direct expression of the way late-imperial Chinese religion worked in practice - a single community, honouring several traditions side by side.
The carving
The sculpture here is close to life size in the main niches and shows the technique the Dazu workshops were famous for: rounded, three-dimensional figures rather than shallow relief, with soft drapery, carefully modelled faces and a good deal of surviving pigment. Several figures were restored in recent decades and the colours - reds, greens, blues and gold - give a much better idea than bare stone of how the whole Dazu complex would originally have looked. The hillside setting, with moss, ferns and old trees around the niches, is part of the experience.
Practical notes
Dazu is about two hours from central Chongqing by road, or by high-speed rail to Dazu South followed by a taxi. The five clusters are spread over a wide area and are not connected by public transport, so a car and driver is the practical arrangement for anything beyond Beishan and Baodingshan; Shimenshan in particular needs a vehicle. Tickets are sold per cluster or in combination, and the walk through the site involves steps on a wooded slope. Visit Baodingshan first if you have not been, then come here for the quieter and more unusual material.
