The reclining Buddha was carved out of the face of a rock mountain near Dazu.  Grotto art in that county is rated alongside China's other great Buddhist cave sculpture at Dunhuang, Luoyang and Datong.  The cliff carvings and statues amount to thousands of pieces, large and small, scattered over the county in approximately 40 places.  They date from the Tang Dynasty (9th century) to the Song (13th century).