The recovering of the Qianfosi cliff sculptures in Tongnan County, Chongqing

Abstract

In 2011, Chongqing Municipal Institute of Cultural Heritage excavated the cliff-side sculptures of the Qianfosi (Thousand-Buddha Temple) in Tongnan County, Chongqing. The excavation uncovered 500sq m in total, from which 43 grottoes and niches, 283 statues and 27 textual inscriptions were recovered. Meanwhile, architectural remains like eaves or porches were also found on the cliffs, the date of which was around the Song to Ming Dynasties. The statues had rich motifs and were carved with exquisite craftsmanship, which provided important materials for the researches on the Buddhist cave temples in the Sichuan and Chongqing areas and the routes of the diffusion of the later Buddhism in the western Chongqing and eastern Sichuan.