The Investigation On The Stone Carring Buddhas Of Tang Dynasty In Sichuan And Chongqing

There are lots of Buddhism grottos and statues being handed down in the area of Sichuan and Chongqing , where is the second developed area of stone carving Buddhas of Tang Dynasty comparing with Central Plains . The academic circles have achieved a lot on the study and research of the stone carving statues in that area since the last century , especially after the 1980s . However , the systematic development and evolution of the states are still unclear , and the discussions of their connection with Central Plain are still not further enough , Thus , a further research should be done , in order to uncover the law of the development and evolution of the Bbuddhas in Sichuan and Chongqing , and find out their concrete connections with central Plain .Basing on the on-the-spot investigaction ,referring to the previous findings , and comparing with other datd , the paper just has a classification and comparison of the stone carving Buddhas.According to the variation of the gestures and images of the Buddhas , they can be put into three classes---cross–legged Buddhas , sitting Buddhas and standing Buddhas .Through the separate study of their fingerprints , cassocks , figures and pedestals , the development and evolution of the Buddhas in Sichuan and chongqing can be divided into three phrases .The first phase covers from the begaining to the end of the 7th century . The quantity of the Buddhas are comparative little . The development of the images are aslo unbalanced , even somewhat immature . The Buddhas are distributed mainly over northem Sichuan . The images of their heads ,the froms of cassocks and pedestals are greatly affected by the local models of Nan Dynasty and Sui Dynasty . They are spread around Chengdu and Northern Sichuan .The second phrase , from the end of the 7th century to the begaining of the 8th century , is a blonming period . Buddhas are great in quantity . It was very popular to explore grottos and carve statues at that time . In addition , they are expanded to chengdu and chongqing of eastern Sichuan (Changqing used to be one part of Sichuan). The images are mature and realistic as well ,and the models of grottos and figures are obviously influenced by the images from changan and luoyang The spreading route is from changan and luoyang , via Hanzhong , along Golden Ox Avenue and Rice stare Avenue until Guangyun , Bazhong in northern Sichuan , and finally into chengdu and chongqing of eastern Sichuan .The third phrase spans from the middle of the 8th century to the end of the 9th century . The buddhas are gradlually waned then . The numbers are bit reduced , the images out of proportion , and the crafts awfully rough . The buddhas are mainly spread around chengdu and chongqing of eastern .Their Several essences and features have a certain improvement based on the original models , and less affected by the external world .All in all ,the images of the Buddhas of Tang Dynasty in that area are a combination of local traditional style and cedtral plain style.