Guangyuan [monastery?], (near) Guangyuan, Sichuan, CN

Raw data

"The Guangyuan Thousand Buddha Cliffside Statues lie on the east bank of the Jialing River, 4 kilometres north of Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province.
The Thousand Buddha Cliffside Statues are on the wall of the cliff that is about 420 metres long and about 40 metres high, whose scale is the largest among the grottoes in Sichuan Province. The grottoes and shrines there are arranged layer upon layer, which reach 13 layers at most. It was recorded on a stone tablet built in the fourth year (1854) of the Xianfeng rein in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that there used to be altogether more than 17,000 statues on the cliff. However in 1935, about half of the statues were destroyed when the cliff was blown up to make for the Chuanshan Road. Now, there only exist more than 400 shrines and grottoes, and more than 7,000 statues. According to the History of Guangyuan County, there are 27 segments of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), 5 segments of the Five Dynasties Period (907-960), 26 segments of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), 26 segments of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), 8 segments of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1911), and 41 segments without exact record of date. Besides these, there are one more hundred inscriptions and Cliffside stone carvings of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasties.

Taking the Dayun Cave as the centre, the statues on the Thousand-Buddha Cliff can be divided into two parts: the north and the south. The famous grottoes in the south part include the Big Buddha Cave, the Lotus Cave, the Sakyamuni Cave, the Thousand-Buddha Cave, the Sleeping Buddha Cave, and the Multi Treasures Buddha Cave, etc.; those in the north part include the Three World Buddhas (Amida Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha and Bhaisajyaguru Buddha) Grotto, the Maitreya Buddha Grotto, the Three Buddha Bodies Shrines, the Vairocana Buddha Shrine, and the Hiding Buddha Cave of the Qing Dynasty, etc. There is a fine collection of the carving works from the Northern and Southern Dynasties Period (386-581), Tang, Song to Qing dynasties (618-1911), all of which have feature particular artistic flavour and exquisite craftsmanship. […]"
http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_travel/2003-09/24/content_34774.htm
Input by: tmciolek, Dec 20, 2010

Final data (and their sources)

Last updated: 07 Apr 2013

Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 200 m from the point defined by the coordinates below.

Location of Guangyuan [monastery?], CN.

General location of the Guangyuan [monastery?], CN.
Lat 32.46875 Long 105.85400
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://www.fallingrain.com), 2010.


Google Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=32.46875+105.85400+(Approx.%20loc.%20of%20the%20Guangyuan%20[monastery?],%20CN)&ll=32.46875,105.85400&spn=05.0,05.0&t=k&hl=en


Final data - explanatory notes

1. Monastery's name

  • Guangyuan [monastery?]

2. Monastery's modern country & province

  • China:Sichuan Sheng

3. Monastery's alternative/historical names

  • [missing data]

4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates

  • Approx. Lat 32.4678 Long 105.8546 - based on the visual identification of the cliff site in maps.google.com/maps - tmciolek, 20 Dec 2010.

5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries

  • [missing data]

6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village


7. The settlement's alternative/historical names


8. The settlement's coordinates


9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition

  • Mahayana

10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition

  • [missing data]

11. Date-early

  • MBM chrono-tag 0400-32p 0433-66p 0467-99p - tmciolek 07 Apr 2013
  • 0400-32p 0433-66p 0467-99p 0500-32c 0533-66c 0567-99c 0600-32c 0633-66c 0667-99c 0700-32c 0733-66c 0767-99c 0800-32c 0833-66c 0867-99c 0900-32c 0933-66c 0967-99c 1000-32c 1033-66c 1067-99c 1100-32c 1133-66c 1167-99c 1200=> dated-el

12. Date-intermediate


13. Date-late

  • MBM chrono-tag 1200=> - tmciolek 07 Apr 2013

14. Details of contacts with other monasteries

  • [missing data]

15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery

  • [missing data]

16. Additional notes

  • [missing data] (incl. details of the size of the monastic population)

17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by

  • [missing data]

end of page

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