statues of Buddha in Grottos on Stone Clock Mountain

The Grottos on the Stone Clock Mountain lie on the branch peak of Shibao Mountain 25 kilometers to the southwest of Jianzhou County, the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.

The Grottos on the Stone Clock Mountain are also called the Jianchuan Grottos. The Stone Clock Mountain is a branch peak of Shibao Mountain, and it is so named because some rocks look like clocks. It is surrounded by continuous mountain ranges with luxuriant trees, fantastic peaks and oddly shaped rocks. The grottos had been gradually chiseled and sculpted from the Nanzhao (local regime in Yunnan Province from 700~900 during the Tang Dynasty) to the Dali (during the Song Dynasty), which lasted several hundred years (c.649-1094). The grottos are located at the foot of the mountains, sixteen of which have been found, distributed in the Stone Clock Temple, the Lion Pass and the Shadeng Village.

The Stone Clock Temple has eight grottos, which are the largest ones with the richest contents and the highest artistic level among the Jianchuan Grottos. The first grotto is 1.34 meters high and 1.7 meters wide. The eaves outside the grotto were carved into three tiers. Inside there is a plane seat with nine figures on it. Yi Mouxun, the king of Nanzhao, was seated dignifiedly on the dragonhead chair in the middle of the seat. On the left and right sides sit Zheng Hui and Du Guangting face to face, both wearing hats with short wings and uncut jade, and boots. On the right side of Yi Mouxun stand three persons who respectively hold a sword, fan, and tail with a long handle. On the left side of him stand two persons who respectively hold a box in both hands and a red vine cane. Before the throne is a boy sitting cross-legged on a seat, holding the bottom of a lotus flower with grapes and peaches in both his hands. The Book of the Barbarian has such recordation that the Qingping official bring the red vine cane followed the prince named Xun Gequan to Chang'an to meet with the Tang Emperor. Here provides the information of the red vine cane. Yi Mouxun and Zhenghui both had made great contributions to the friendship between the Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty and to the national unity. This grotto indirectly reflects the historical fact.

The second grotto is 1.46 meters high and 1.52 meters wide, which tells about the trips of Ge Luofeng. There are 16 figures in total carved in the grotto, which has the biggest number of figures among the Jianchuan Grottos. The grotto describes the scenes that a king is holding court on his trip. The grotto looks like a wide wooden hall, with three-tiered eaves that are engraved with patterns of petal, patterns of pearl strings and bed curtains, which are connected with flower-engraved partition boards on both sides. In the center of the hall, Ge Luofeng, the king of the Nanzhao, who looks dignified and serious, is sitting cross-legged in the chair with double dragonheads. Before the chair lie a lion and a tiger. There are six figures on the left side and seven on the right, one of whom is Monk Ge Po, who was the younger brother of Ge Luofeng. On each side of Ge Luofeng sit an official surrounded by a group of attendants, warriors holding flags and swords, boys holding bottles, and civil officials. Each of them has different vivid postures. This grotto, which is splendid in scenery and harmonious in composition, veritably describes the court life in the Nanzhao Dynasty. From the 3^rd to the 7^th Grottos, there are all statues of Buddha, exquisitely carved and well designed, which are the representative artworks of the Jianchuang Grottos and reveal that the Buddhism used to be prevailing during the Nanzhao and Dali Dynasties. Among them, there are A'ang Bai, a female worship object popular in the Bai nationality, the statues of the Eight Heavenly Kings, Kwan-yin, Manjusri Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva and so on.

There are three grottos in the Lion Pass, chiseled on the cliffs. One is the statue of the king of Nanzhao with all his family members, which is generally called photography of the whole family. The statues are put on a quadrate seat, behind which is a red and green curtain. On the seat are five statues: the right is the King, wearing black high hat, holding a scepter, whose cheek are cover with whiskers and appears dignified and solemn; the left is the Queen, wearing lotus hat, exquisitely engraved. Between them is sitting a little boy and on each side of them are a boy and a girl. On both sides of the seat stand two attendants, a male and a female. The shapes of sun and moon are carved on the left and right upper corners of the grotto. Both the figures and their composition reflect the aspiration of the people for happy marriage and family. In the second grotto there is a Kwan-yin, generally called wine bibber, with a dog beside him. In the third grotto is a statue of an Indian monk with tall nose and deep eyes on a huge rock.

There are four sites in the Shadeng Village. The stone-carvings in the first site are divided into two floors. There are four grottos with statues of Buddha on the lower floor, one of which on the lotus throne is carved with the Inscriptions on July 25 in the 11^th year of the Tianqi reign, that is the first year (841) of the reign of Huichang in the Tang Dynasty. Most of the others are all statues of Buddha, with a unique style. Besides the influence from grottos of the Central Plains, the Jianchuan Grottos, which are well designed and skillfully carved, with vivid models and lifelike figures, also possess the characteristics of the local ethnic flavor, and are the treasure houses of the stone-carving art created by the ancestors of the Bai nationality in Yunnan Province.