The Buddhist stone carvings from the Southern Dynasties are rather rare, and most ofthe published ones unearthed in Chengdu area of Sichuan. Examples include more than onehundred pieces uncovered at the Wanfo Temple in the outskirts of Chengdu in 1882, sometwo hundred pieces at the same locality successively in 1937, 1953 and 1954, one piece atMowen county to the northwest of Chengdu in the 1920s, nine pieces in downtown Cheng-du in 1991 and again in 1995. These carvings, mostly unpublished, cannot match theirNorthern Dynasties counterparts in number. However, they provide important materials forthe study of the Southern Dynasties stone carvings in terms of shape, theme, chronologyand their relationship with the northern stone carvings.
