Heshan Stone Carvings

These carvings are distributed on the cliffs along the Heshan valley 20 km away from the city in the northwest. These shallow carvings on the dark-purple rocks look rough and clumsy. They show ancient people's activities like hunting, dancing, and arrow-shooting. This spot is included in the provincial relic's protection list.

Rock carving is the oldest way of drawing, which reflects ancient people's initial impression of the world around them. The Heshan stone carvings are a few meters high on the slopes of the valley. They vary in size. Their length ranges from 0.2-2.4 meters and their width ranges from 0.3-3 meters. Although the way of carving is quite simple, the picture is vivid and forceful.

The carvings can be divided into two categories: carvings of human beings and carvings of animals. They describe a variety of scenes: dancing, hunting, shooting, horse-riding, camel-riding, military-training, tigers'chasing cows and sheep and etc. However, there are no scenes of farming and people cannot find the weapons of swords and spears in these pictures.

Therefore, these carvings reflect the living scenes of a nomadic people. Some people wear robes and hats with feather. The most impressive scenes are those of dancing. People are dancing in rows, or in circles with herds inside. You can even feel the musical rhythm of the dances. All these carvings show us the ancient herdsmen's strong desire for spiritual aspect of living.

As is testified, these carvings are remains of ancient Qiang people. They provide valuable information for the study of the history of the Qiang people.

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