The Grottos of Tuoshan Mountain are situated on Tuoshan Mountain, six kilometers southwest of Yidu County, Shandong Province.
Tuoshan Mountain is a famous mountain on the Shandong Peninsular containing a great number of temples and pagodas. The grottos are mostly distributed on the cliffs, southeast of the main summit. Aligned from north to south are five grottos and one niche with a total of 638 Buddha statues, big or small.
The No.3 Grotto is the principal part of the Grottos of Tuoshan Mountain, and has the longest history and largest number of some of the biggest carvings. The grotto is 2.5 meters deep and has a Buddha statue seated at its center on a one-meter-tall base carved in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581). Flanking the Buddha are 3.94-meter-tall statues of Bodhisattvas of the Sui Dynasty (581-618) style.
The No.1 Grotto was built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Buddha carving is elegant and calm with a well-padded face and a naked upper body in the Tang style. The No.2, No.4 and No.5 grottos are relics of the Sui and Tang Dynasties that provide important material references for the study of Buddhist art of that period.
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