Chongqing - A major exhibition of Chongqing's Dazu Rock Carvings is bringing high-precision replicas and immersive digital recreations of the UNESCO World Heritage site to New York this summer. Co-hosted by the Memor Museum and the Academy of Dazu Rock Carvings of Chongqing, China, the exhibition Harmony of the East - World Heritage: Dazu Rock Carvings - An Exhibition of Art and Life Narratives officially opened to the public.
Moving beyond conventional artifact displays, the show uses a pioneering format that combines digital immersion with physical replication – bringing, for the first time on a large scale and with exceptional fidelity, the masterpieces of late-period Chinese grotto art to American audiences. These carvings, designated as an immovable UNESCO World Heritage site, are presented here in a way that makes them accessible thousands of miles from their original cliff homes.
High-precision replicas of the Dazu Rock Carvings are on display at the Memor Museum in New York. (Photo/ Dazu District)
How "Unmovable" Cliffs Travel Across the Ocean: Digital Technology Makes It Possible
The Dazu Rock Carvings are located in Dazu District, Chongqing, in southwestern China. Carving began in the early Tang dynasty, continued through the late Tang and Five Dynasties, and reached its zenith during the Northern and Southern Song dynasties. They represent the highest level of global grotto art from the 9th to the 13th century. In 1999, they were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, becoming a treasured gem of Chinese civilization.
Visitors are viewing the exhibition Harmony of the East – World Heritage: Dazu Rock Carving – An Exhibition of Art and Life Narratives. (Photo/ Dazu District)
Since most of the Dazu carvings are cliff-face sculptures anchored to the mountainside and cannot be relocated, this exhibition relies on high-precision 3D scanning and 3D printing replication technologies. A selection of the most representative statues has been reproduced using materials such as photosensitive resin, meticulously capturing the original forms, proportions, and textures. This enables visitors in Manhattan to appreciate the essence of the Bashan cliff carvings (Dazu's cliff carvings) up close, without having to travel to China.
Bringing Song-Dynasty Aesthetics to Life
Following the exhibition's curatorial framework, the display is organized into three sections – Masterpiece of Genius, Worldly Vignettes, and Harmonious Unity – offering a comprehensive exploration of the artistic brilliance and philosophical worldview embodied in the Dazu carvings.
In Masterpiece of Genius, visitors will encounter the magnificent Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara. Carved into the cliff face, the original spans 88 square meters, with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes fanning out like a peacock's tail, resplendent in gold – a testament to the supreme sculptural aesthetics of ancient Chinese artisans. The locally beloved "Charming Guanyin," or Rosary-Holding Guanyin, with its gentle smile and lively posture, exemplifies the shift from solemn divinity to human warmth in Buddhist statuary.
Buddhist statue of Guanyin on display at the Memor Museum in New York. (Photo/ Dazu District)
Worldly Vignettes is a highlight of the exhibition. One of the most distinctive features of the Dazu carvings is their depiction of everyday life. Through works like The Ox-Herding Series and The Sutra on the Deep Kindness of Parents, the exhibition demonstrates how Buddhist teachings are conveyed through scenes of everyday life, including herding oxen and parents caring for children. This philosophy of "daily life as practice", along with delightful details like cat-and-mouse scenes and a girl playing the flute, presents a Chinese Buddhist world that is both sacred and intimately relatable to Western viewers.
Harmonious Unity focuses on the harmonious coexistence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in Song-dynasty China. The Buddha and Laozi sit side by side; Confucian filial piety intertwines with Buddhist narrative sutras – vividly illustrating the broad-minded inclusiveness and harmonious diversity of Chinese culture.
Digital Immersion: Step Into a Millennium-Old Cliffside in Manhattan
Beyond the physical replicas, the exhibition features immersive digital video installations and introduces mixed reality (MR) technology, allowing visitors to "enter" the Dazu grottoes in a completely new way. With MR headsets, the thousand-year-old statues "descend" from the cliff and float before your eyes – every fold of drapery, every trace of weathering, visible in exquisite detail, seemingly within reach. Viewers can move around the virtual sculptures and examine details such as facial expressions, flowing ribbons and traces of weathering. Complemented by the digital films A Day in the Rock, a Thousand Years in the World and Understanding Dazu, along with themed publications, the exhibition offers multiple sensory dimensions of Dazu's artistic allure.
Memor Museum: A Bridge for East-West Civilizational Dialogue
As co-host of this exhibition, the Memor Museum is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, within the historic district of the Metropolitan Museum of Art – the only Asian-culture-focused museum in the area, at the heart of America's cultural and artistic hub. Long dedicated to fostering dialogue between Eastern and Western civilizations, the museum presents this Dazu exhibition not only as its landmark Asian historical and cultural project of the year, but also as a concrete step toward deepening U.S.-China cultural exchange.
From Chongqing to New York, from Song-dynasty cliffs to the modern metropolis – this exhibition is not merely a deep integration of digital technology and cultural heritage, but a timeless cross-civilizational conversation. The exhibition offers New Yorkers and visitors from around the world a rare opportunity to encounter the Dazu Rock Carvings and explore the enduring appeal of China's traditional culture.
(Zhang Xuege, as an intern, also contributed to this report)