Dazu Carved Stone was granted "The World's Cultural Heritage" by UNESCO on Dec. 1st, 1999.

Dazu carved stone is an important one of the grotto art. It is as famous as the Yungang and Longmen grotto. It is a milestone for the development of grotto art and also has contributed much to the development of grotto art.

Dazu carved stone locates in Dazu County, Chongqing. It is a general term of all the grotto arts for Moya portraits. There have been over 50 thousand status and over 100 thousand words in 75 different grottos having been protected.

Dazu County locates in the southeast of Sichuan basin. Its west is 271kms away from Chengdu and its east is 70kms away from Chongqing. The total area of this county is 1400 squ.kms with a population of 0.9million. Dazu County was established in 758 with a 1240-year-long history. The meaning of Dazu is "rich and abundant".

Dazu carved stone was first built in the first year of Yonghu period of Tang dynasty going through the late Tang, the 5 Generations, North Song and South Song, Ming and Qing, most prosperous in the Two Song dynasty. The dazu carved stone includes 5 state historical and cultural relics, Beishan carved stone(including the North Tower), Baodingshan carved stone, Nanshan carved stone, Shimenshan carved stone and Shizhuanshan carved stone, all of which are the world heritages. There are also 4 historical and cultural relics in Chongqing city, Jianshanzi carved stone, Shuchengyan carved stone, Miaogaoshan carved stone and Qianfoyan carved stone. There are 66 historical and cultural relics in Dazu County, including the carved stone of Xishan, Shengshui temple, Sanjiao temple, qingshan yard, Laojun temple, Bianbian temple, Qigong Bridge, Puhe temple, Chenjiayan, etc. The carved stones of Beishan, Baodingshan, Nanshan, Shimenshan and Shizhuashan are the most famous ones among the Dazu carved stones.

Most of Dazu carved stones are the portraits of Buddha and there are also some of Confucian and Tao.

Beishan Carved Stone: in which the "Zhuanlunjingzang" grotto is highly appraised by many artists. This grotto has been well reserved. The Puxian Bodhisattva figure in this grotto has the characters of beauties of the oriental women. It also has another name--"Venus in the orient". In addition the "ancient prose of filial lection stele", which contains 22 chapters, is a unique one in the world.

Baodingshan carved stone: this one has great momentum like funnies carved on a 500-meter-long cliff. The statuses are all different to each other, from which we can see a live society.

Nanshan carved stone: it is a milestone of the Tao status. The Sanqing ancient hole provides the data recourses, which can fully and systematically show the system of Tao in Song dynasty.

Shizhuanshan carved stone: it contains statuses of Buddha, Tao and Confucian, for example the Kongzi niche and the Laojun niche and so on.

Shimenshan carved stone: it contains the statuses of Buddha and Tao. Especially the latter is better, for example, the Qianliyan status outside of Yuhuang Emperor neche. Its eyes are as big as a copper bell. It seems that they can see the things 1000kms away; the clairaudient status is ugly in a pose of listening; Er status is muscular.

The Chinese grottos have their special characters in different periods. The grotto art in earlier period (Wei and Jin period, 4-5 century) represented by the Yungang grotto were greatly affected by the art of Jiantuoluo and Jiduo in India. The grotto art in the middle period (Sui and Tang period, 6-9 century) represented by the Longmen grotto is characterized by the integration of cultures of India and China. Dazu carved stove, the representative in the late stage, absorbs the advantages of the former ones creating a milestone in terms of topic choose, art form, sculpt technology and taste.

Since the old times, "carved stones in the five mountains" had been a wonder. Among them, Beishan and Baodingshan are the most famous ones attracting tourists and monks from inside and outside China. As to Baodingshan, before and after every Feb 29 in Chinese traditional calendar, there are thousands of visitors coming here. Since Dazu County has been opened up, the amount of visitors increases day by day. The average amount of visitors is over 0.35million. In its top year, the amount reaches 0.6million and it is over 10 thousand in the top day.