CHENGDU, March 19 (Xinhua) -- A large number of carved cliff paintings have recently been found on a hill in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to local authorities.

The hill is located nearby a monastery in Zhenda Township in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze.

An inspection team from the local government was dispatched to the location and found many cliff paintings from the foot of the mountain to a cave near the top of the mountain, featuring various Tibetan Buddhist images and numerous inscriptions written in ancient Tibetan. A large painting, measuring 2 meters in height and 0.7 to 1 meter in width was found on the mountainside.

The team said that details of the ancient paintings were difficult to recognize, while local residents brushed butter on the paintings to protect them from weathering.

Experts had previously discovered murals and clay sculptures dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in the monastery in 2017. Badan, a monk of the monastery, inferred that the cliff paintings date from the same period as the monastery's murals.

The local government said they would take more measures to protect the cultural relics and invite experts to carry out further research on them.