This long-closed cliff carving is definitely the most mediocre national treasure in Sichuan

Although I have been to Mianyang many times, I have never had the chance to see the Bishui Temple cliff carvings. Every time I go, it is either closed for maintenance or for some other reason. This time I visited Mianyang again, I finally had the chance to visit, but it is really not worth a special trip, because it is probably the most mediocre national treasure in Sichuan. You can park your car in the parking lot behind the Yuewang Tower to visit the Bishui Temple, walk across the street to see the gate of the Bishui Temple, and then walk down the downhill steps to the river. First, you can see an almost abandoned antique market, and then go down to the Bishui Temple. This is a three-story building with flying eaves and corners, built on the cliff, covering the sky and the sun. Standing on the building, you can overlook the scenery on both sides of the Fujiang River. It is quite antique and has a lot of artistic conception. The national treasure Bishui Temple cliff carvings are mainly on the first floor of the building, and the two floors above are all newly made statues that are like making up the numbers, which can be directly ignored. It is said that the earliest Bishui Temple cliff carvings had more than 1,000 niches, which were built in the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty and have a history of more than 1,400 years. Unfortunately, a large part of the carvings were destroyed when the Longxi Dam was built in 1940. Now the entire Bishui Temple has only 25 niches left, all of which are not large in scale and have poor visibility. Among them, 18 niches and 120 Buddha statues are carved on the giant suspended cliff on the first floor of the building, as well as the thirty-two products of the Diamond Sutra, which were made in the first year of Tang Baoying (726). But the relatively complete carvings are only 3 niches, and the other small niches are almost invisible due to weathering. The most speechless thing is that a crystal palace was added under the cliff carvings, and the ugliness of the carvings and the surrounding environment do not match at all. The Bishui Temple cliff carvings can be listed as a national treasure, probably because of its long history. It is one of the earlier Buddhist stone carvings in Sichuan, with the style of the Chang'an region, and then there is a Diamond Sutra of about 4,000 characters. Although it is already blurred, you can still feel the regular and vigorous font, and the structure is rigorous. In addition, there are two Ming Dynasty stone carvings of soldiers on the first floor of the building, standing on both sides of the main hall. I didn't find any introduction. I guess it was unearthed from a tomb in Mianyang. When I came back to read the introduction, I realized that the round carving of Guanyin, which I thought was superfluous at the time, was actually from before the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Its historical value is quite high, but I didn't want to take pictures at the time. I thought it was newly carved, but their restored appearance is indeed no different from the new one. In addition, if you go further inside along the river in Bishui Temple, there is another cliff carving. We noticed it when we looked at the scenic map later, so we went back to find it. This should be the other 7 niches mentioned in the introduction. It is also very speechless, because three new statues including Zhao Gongming were directly built in the hall, which just blocked the original cliff carvings behind... But if you look closely, almost none of the original cliff carvings are completely preserved, and the visibility is better than nothing. 🏠Name | Bishui Temple Cliff Carvings 🎫Ticket | Free ⛳Address | 17 Mianshan Road, Youxian District, Mianyang City 🚗Traffic | Navigate to "Bishui Temple"