The Cliffside Statues of Kongwang Mountain are located on
Kongwang Mountain, two kilometers south of Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province.
There are written records about the Cliffside Statues of the Kongwang
Mountain from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
The cliffside statues are situated in the west, at the southern foot of the
mountain, and include 105 sculptures in 18 groups that are 15.6 meters long from
east to west and 9.7 meters high. Among the statues, the largest measures 1.54
meters, and the smallest, 10 centimeters. Seventy meters east of the Cliffside
Statues is a stone statue of an elephant with a long trunk, big tusks, curved
tail and thick legs, with a man on its back. One hundred and fifty meters south
of the Cliffside Statues is a stone statue of a toad.
The themes of the statues are based on the story of Sakyamuni. Also included
are pictures of Nirvana, a banquet party, sitting Buddha, standing Buddha and
donators. Dating back 200 years before the Dunhuang Grottoes (366), they are the
oldest carvings of Chinese grotto art and the embryonic form of Buddhism in
China.