Archaeologists Discover 10 Ancient Cliff Carving Buddhist Statues In Tibet

Ten rare cliff-carving Buddhist statues dating back to the late 8th century have been discovered by archeologists in the Tibet region.

Archaeologists conducting a survey at a cliff carving site in Markam County in the city of Qamdo, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region

Source : Xinhua

Archaeologists in the Tibet region have discovered ten Buddhist statues dating back to the late 8th century to the early 9th century. The statues have the typical characteristics of the Tibetan Tubo Kingdom, about 618-842, and were found in three cliff-carving sites in Markam County in the city of Qamdo, according to the Regional Institute of Cultural Relics Protection. Trinley Tsering, a staffer with the institute, while talking to the news agency Xinhua said that the cliff-carving statues have unique elements, featuring rare subjects such as Sakyamuni Buddha and Manjusri Bodhisattva, the Buddha of Wisdom.

"These precious cliff carvings provide important information for further research on the spatial distribution, artistic inheritance, and ideological dissemination of Tubo Buddhist statues," Tsering said.

A special survey was launched in December 2020 in Tibet on grotto temples and cliff-carving statues, resulting in the investigation of 277 sites in the region. Out of those 277, seven are under national key cultural relics protection, and 23 are under regional-level cultural relics protection.

In 2018, a similar discovery was made when newly discovered cliff carvings of Buddha in eastern Tibet offered a glimpse into the Buddhist art and local history from 1,200 years back. The discoveries, dating back to the Tibetan Tubo Kingdom era, were found in Acur township in the Chagyab County of the Qamdo City, as per Regional Cultural Relics Protection Research. 

Initially, construction workers discovered the Buddha figure carving relics while mining for stones in a valley. 

According to Xinhua's report, the carvings were inscribed on rocks that stretch around 10 meters in total. Based on their style, experts assumed that the carvings date back to the 9th century.