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<font size="-1"><i>based on material offered by <a href="
http://www.chinavista.com/experience/dfb.html">Mr.Du Feibao</a></i></font></center>
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The Sleeping Buddha is Sakyamuni on his death bed entering nirvana. It can be seen in temples, grottoes or frescoes all round China, varied from stone engraving, wood cutting, jade carving, clay sculpture, coloured drawing to metal moulding. Its size can be so long as to tens of meters or as small as a grain of rice.</p>
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<img align="left" src="/img/1263113719471.jpg" />Mr. <i>Zhao Puchu</i>, the president of China Buddhism Association, such described the authentic sight of Sakyamuni's nirvana in the book of <i>"General Knowledge of Buddha"</i>:<br />
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"Before the Buddha's death, he became severely sick. He walked northwest with his disciples and had the food offered by a blacksmith. His illness was getting worse. In the end, he came to a river and took a bath. Then he made a rope bed among eight sal trees, with each direction has two. He lied on his side, right hand supporting his head, the other resting on his body. All later reclining Buddhas (called <i>Buddha's Nirvana</i>) are in the same posture. The Buddha's disciples kept watch on him after they were told the Buddha was going to nirvana. At night, a scholar of Brahman went to see the Buddha, but was stopped by Ananda, a disciple of the Buddha. Hearing this, the Buddha called the scholar to his bed and worded for him. Thus the scholar became the Buddha's last disciple. The final exhortation of theBuddha to his disciples was that they should not be sorry for losing their tutor. Their should take the Buddhism Doctrine as their guide, eager for pro
gress, no indulgence. After his death, the Buddha's remains were cremated.<br />
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Sakyamuni died at the age of eighty years old. People excavated the vestige of the cremation of his remains and the reclining Buddha carved in stone at where he died.<br />
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The <b>No.158 Cave</b> of <i>Dunhuang Grottoes</i> in China built in Tang Dynasty has a 15-meter-long glazed figurine of reclining Buddha in clay. Though for art's sake it was exaggerated, it still authentically reflected the scene of Sakyamuni's death. The artists of Tang Dynasty depicted the eighty-year-old Buddha into an asleep woman with plump cheeks, half-opened eyes, deeply sunk corners of mouth and kind and tranquil smile. It is said at that time, he was giving his last expounding on <i>"Nirvana Doctrine"</i> to his disciples around.<br />
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The southern wall of this cave drew in color two elder disciples of Sakyamuni. One of them was listening with rapt attention, while the other was running. It is said the latter was practicing Buddhism in a mountain when he heard his tutor was going to nirvana. He rushed down to listen to Sakyamuni's last words.<br />
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On the western and eastern walls there is a colored "Sorrow Showing Picture" about Bodhisattvas, <i>arhats</i> and princes of all kingdoms in Turkestan. Bodhisattvas are the figures with higher awareness in Buddhism. They knew only the Buddha after nirvana could enter the Sukhavati (Western Paradise). Therefore, they showed nonchalance and indifference to Buddha's nirvana. For those <i>arhats</i>, as they had not reached such a high level as Bodhisattvas, their expressions are miserable when they knew the Buddha was leaving them. As to those princes, they cried out aloud, thumping their chests and stamping their feet. Some even cut their noses and ears with knives. Some laid open the bowel and committed suicide, deciding to follow the Buddha. What they had done showed their devoutness to the Buddha and their low awareness as well. These colorful pictures not only helped people historically understand the real sight of the Buddha's death, but get to know the
folk customs of the ancient Turkestan people through the portraits on the drawings.<br />
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There are many reclining Buddha statues all over China, some of which have high artistic value. They have been listed as important cultural relics to be preserved by the nation.</p>
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<font color="#666666" size="-1">article selected from<i>Travel China</i> weekly</font></center>
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Amidst tranquil woods, winding paths and running brooks, cattlemen direct their herds. While some men wield their whips lightly over the animals, others get together and chat. Among them a man sits playing a bamboo flute and another with his chest bare, lies on a rock sleeping. A crane approaches the flute player as if to take a rest and drink from the river.<br />
This is a typical scene of a 27-meter-long rock carving in Dazu County, 162 kilometers west of Chongqing, the largest city in southwest China. This particular carving imparts to viewers not only a moment of serenity but a Buddhist teaching as well: One can free oneself from earthly worries by self-cultivation and does not need to go beyond his own inner world to find the truth of Buddhism.</p>
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<img align="left" src="/img/1263113716311.jpg" />There are many other carvings like this at the site that tell Buddhist doctrines through the lives of ordinary people. Dazu County has over 70 grottoes. Baoding Grotto, 15 kilometers northeast of the county seat, is the largest and best preserved and is a key cultural relic site under state protection.<br />
Over 50,000 Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian rock carvings and 100,000 characters of inscriptions are scattered around Dazu. They date back more than 1000 years. The grottoes were first chiseled in the early Tang Dynasty (618-907), flourishing in the late Tang and the Song Dynasty (960-1279).<br />
Compared with the famous grottoes of northern China, the Dazu Grottoes are more secular and real to life. They are rich for their both images and inscriptions and are considered an art treasure house that reflects the period's society, philosophy, religion and folklore.In late 1999 UNESCO listed Dazu Stone Carvings as a world cultural heritage site. Now China has 23 cultural and natural heritage sites listed by UNESCO.<br />
"The stone carvings are remarkable for their high aesthetic qualities, their rich diversity of subject matter, both secular and religious, and provide a glimpse into the life of China during this period," remarked UNESCO'S Beijing Office. Many of the carvings in Baoing Grotto reflect religious doctrines, though what viewers may see are representations of familiar, secular life. For instance, a set of carvings teaches the Buddhist doctrine of never killing living things through a story about a woman and her farm of chickens. Early in the morning, the woman lets out the chickens. However, she does not realize that by pecking at the earthworm, her chickens have committed a sin.<br />
Another set of carvings reflects the introduction of Confucianism, a development in the Song Dynasty. The concept of filial piety is imparted through scenes of a woman praying to Buddha so that she can conceive a son. Then it continues depicting how she goes through the burdens of pregnancy, the pain of giving birth and the hard time of bringing up the child. Beneath the carings is a depiction of Hell where the unfilial ones are being punished. This set of carvings, composed of 11 scenes, has a real life touch and epitomes the lives of the time. "Dazu Grottoes fully deserve the title as a cultural and art treasure house," says Li Fangyin, a researcher specializing in Dazu stone carvings. Besides images of Buddha and Bodhisattva, other carvings depict characters of different ages and statues, including monarchs, ministers, military officers, high and low-ranking officials, jailers, executioners, monks, rich and poor people, folk art performers, and so on. Their clot
hing and tools reflect the secular life of the time.<br />
Points out that of China's over 100 grottoes, the Dazu Grottoes are the only ones that were implemented according to an overall design.<br />
Baoding Grotto, for instance, shows traces of a general design in the composition of the carvings. Starting from the south entrance and going east, visitors can see four sets of carvings that teach people how to rid oneself of earthly worries and the Buddhist theory of punitive justice. Going westward, visitors can see three sets of carvings that tell how to acquire Buddhism's truths and obtain enlightenment.<br />
"The carved images at Baoding never repeat, but you can tell that they are correlated," says he. "This can only be achieved through an overall design." The location of the carvings reinforces this design. The carvings that reflect Hell were done on the chiffsides at the low and uneven terrain. The soothing scene of cattlemen and their herds is found on the sunward cliffside that rises and falls gently.<br />
Li further pointed out that the ancient artisans at Dazu used many clever innovations. The carvings at Baoding engraved on the three cliff sides of a U-shaped valley. A huge protrusive rock forms a ceiling above the three cliffsides, protecting the carvings from the erosion of rainwater.<br />
The water drainage method used for the grotto is very unique. One carving in the grotto depicts the scene of newly born Sakyamuni being bathed by spring water. The carvers did not chisel patterns of water drops on the cliffside. Instead, they channeled spring water to flow out of the mouth of a carved dragon, hence giving liveliness to the carving and solving the drainage problem at the same time.<br />
In the carving of Herding Cattle, the carvers chiseled an image of a cow by the side of a drainage groove, giving a touch of motion to the entire carving.<br />
Besides drainage techniques, The Bodhisattva of Wisdom carries in the hand a stone pagoda that is one meter high and weighs about half a ton. The hand alone can not support the weight, so the carvers diverted the weight through the loose sleeve of the kasaya that drapes from his wrist to the knee. Thus the stone pagoda has stood in the hand securely for 800 years.<br />
Visitors with a careful eye can find such structural innovations at Dazu. This is why the carvings have survived many centuries and remain in good condition.</p>
The expression explains itself. The Chinese people have the custom of sticking up pictures to celebrate the traditional New Year--now called the Spring Festival. This was recorded in historical works of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The custom is particularly popular in the vast countryside, where just before the festiv.
On any given day of the week, working days as well as holidays, you will find the people of Nanyang and Zhoukou in Henan Province creating rustic-looking yet colourful clay toys. Children, who like to play with them, call them "Nini Gou" (clay puppy) since most of these moulded figures are in the shape of a dog or other small animal. Some of them also have small over holes and can be used as whistles.
The Puppet Show (kuileixi) is better known as mu'ouxi (play of wooden dolls), in the country, which has its roots in remote times. It is said that King Mu of the Zhou (c.10th century B.C.) of oral history, on his way home from a big hunt on the Kunlun Mountain, saw a choral dance performed by Yanshi, a skilled carpenter, with wooden dolls made by himself. However, it was not until the Han Dynasty that the puppet show was mentioned as a full-fledged form of amusement. Still, that puts it at least 2,000 years back in Chinese history.
The tri-coloured glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty was developed some 1,300 years ago by drawing on the skills of Chinese painting and sculpture and employing on the bodies the techniques of clay-strip forming and incising. The lines thus produced were rugged and powerful. Then glazes of different colours were painted on and, while chemical reactions took place in the process of firing in the kiln, they dripped naturally so that the colours mingled with each other and formed smooth tones.