Daily precipitation data from 20 meteorological stations in the Three Gorges Reservoir area (TGRA) from 1960 to 2016 was used to analyze the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of extreme precipitation events with the methods of linear tendency estimation, Mann-Kendall test, wavelet analysis, and kriging interpolation. The results show that the extreme precipitation in the TGRA generally showed a decreasing trend in the past 57 years, among which Rx5day and CWD decreased significantly, whereas SDII, Rx1day, and R99p increased insignificantly. The reason for this phenomenon could be that PRCPTOT decreased at a slower rate than CWD, which caused the rainfall redistribution. Most of the abrupt changes of extreme precipitation indices occurred around 1990. The climatic tendency rates of PRCPTOT, R10, and R95p all showed a significant downward trend in the central part of the TGRA, except that CWD showed an increasing trend in the northeast and southwest of the TGRA, indicating a homogenizing trend of extreme precipitation in the area. The extreme precipitation indices had similar main changing cycles in the TGRA, most of them had a short cycle of 4-6 a, with the exception of R10 and R25, which had a medium cycle of 12-16 a, indicating that the extreme precipitation events in the TGRA were evolving in the direction of high intensity and short cycles. Climatic factors had a great impact on extreme precipitation indices, among which relative sunspot number was positively correlated with the extreme precipitation indices, whereas the other factors were all negatively correlated with them. In terms of time sequence, PRCPTOT lagged behind from most climatic factors. This study can provide a reference for the prediction of extreme climate changes and the prevention and reduction of disasters in the TGRA.