Chongqing: Located in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, the Dazu Rock Carvings have held UNESCO World Heritage status since 1999. Sprawled across 75 recognized cultural relics protection zones, the site shelters over 50,000 statues. As one of the eight great grottoes of the world, Dazu Rock Carvings represent the pinnacle of world grotto art dating from the 9th to the mid-13th century. Celebrated as ‘the last monument of world grotto art,’ Dazu, together with Mogao, Yungang, Longmen, and other grottoes, constitute the complete history of Chinese grotto art.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, recent initiatives have rejuvenated Dazu’s cultural presence. In an 8K dome theater, the Thousand-Armed Guanyin’s gaze fills the screen, inviting viewers into a celestial embrace. The dance-drama “Tian Xia Dazu (For an Eternal Homeland – Dazu Rock Carvers’ Legacy)” animates the carvers’ tale with immersive stagecraft. Video games now feature Dazu’s statues, their contours and stories woven into virtual adventures. This sanctuary is stepping firmly into the present.
The 8k full-dome film “Dazu Rock Carvings” awakens all 50,000 statues in streams of live footage and CG animation, transforming the physical space into a digital world. Reclined within the dome, audiences look up through a canopy of digital stars, accompanied by Buddhist chants and light interplay. Time-weathered halos reform around sculpted robes, reborn in pixels yet rooted in antiquity.
In “Black Myth: Wukong,” the Monkey King cleaves through chaos with his staff. The thousand-armed Guanyin of Dazu Rock Carvings smiles amid dimensional rifts, holding a flower. Gamers traverse a rendered Dazu, encountering Buddhist iconography amid quests, an interactive bridge to Eastern philosophy. Meanwhile, CCTV’s “China in Intangible Cultural Heritage” devoted its Chongqing episode to Dazu, describing the site’s legacy as stars falling over mountains and rivers, rekindling memory through the screen.
On stage, dancers echo the chiseling rhythms of artisans. Costumes swirl as performers burst from stone walls, transforming history into art. This isn’t a static reenactment – it’s a cultural translation, transmitting the carvers’ spirit through flesh, motion, and emotion.
The Dazu Rock Carvings are being revitalized through digital technology and cultural innovation. Digital projection breathes new life into carvings in virtual spaces, enabling dialogues across time and space. Stage arts imbue them with contemporary vitality. Technology extends their reach, while culture revitalizes their essence. Through this symbiosis, this treasure resonates with the modern era, radiating timeless splendor.