Leshan Giant Buddha

Leshan Giant Buddha is situated at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi three rivers. Facing the sacred Mt Emeishan with the rivers flowing below its feet and being carved on the cliff besides the Mount Lingyun, Leshan Giant Buddha is the largest carved stone Buddha statue in the world. It was a national key cultural relic protection unit and added into the UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1996.

The construction of the Leshan Giant Buddha was begun in the year 713 and finished in the year of 803 in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). During these years, thousands of workers had expended their efforts and wisdom on the project. It is praised by a poet as “the mountain is a Buddha and a Buddha is a mountain”, which reveals not only the great size of the Buddha but its important statue in the world. The whole scenic covers an area of about 8 square kilometers and composed of Mount Lingyun, Mount Wulong, Manhao Cemetery and the Giant Reclining Buddha, etc. With beautiful scenery and precious cultural value, Leshan Giant Buddha draws millions of tourists and Buddhist pilgrims at home and abroad.

The Overview of the Buddha

The Leshan Giant Buddha is a statue of Maitreya, usually represented as a very stout monk with a broad smile on his face and with his naked breast and paunch exposed to view. He is believed to be the disciple of Sakyamuni, who is said to have founded Buddhism. The solemn Buddha stands 71 meters high and its head itself is 14.7 meters high and 10 meters wide. Its ear is 7 meters long, eye 3.3 meters wide, nose 5.6 meters long, and shoulder 24 meters wide. Its head is covered with 1,051 chignons. Its middle finger is 8.3 meters long, and each of the feet are 11 meters long and 8.5 meters wide, long enough to accommodate more than 100 people sitting on it. On the both sides of the Buddha, there lie two warrior sculptures with a height of more than 10 meters. Together with the giant Buddha, they composed a giant Buddhist stone carving art complex.

Characteristics

With a sophisticated and invisible drainage system, the Leshan Giant Buddha is well protected. The drainage ditches are scattered in the chignons, collars and buckling places of the body to carry away the water after the rains so as to reduce weathering. The system is still in working order at present. The entire statue is made of stone, except for the ears. It is 7 meters long and crafted of wood instead of the stone. Then it was covered with clay.

There is a hidden hole on the chest of the Buddha, which was filled with scrap iron, brick, wasted lead skin, etc. What makes it distinguished is that it used the residual tablet of Tianning Pavilion in Song Dynasty (960-1279) to close the hole. It is recorded that when the Giant Buddha was carved, a huge thirteen story wooden structure was built to shelter it from rain and sunshine. But the stele was embedded on the chest of the big Buddha at no time and no reason to know. From then on, the stone statue was exposed to the elements and the stele was damaged in 1966.

Jiuqu Plank Road

With a total of 217 stone stairs, the Plank Road is 1.45 meters at its widest point and 0.6 at its narrowest point. It wanders along the cliff and can reach to the bottom of the Buddha. It was started to build in 1983 and completed in 1984. It has a total length of about 500 meters and formed a travel route. What a pity is that the weathering phenomenon is very serious.

Wuyou Temple

Wuyou Temple was built in the Mount Wuyou, which is also known as Mount Wuniu for it lying in the river just like an ox. It was designed along the hill shape, zigzag and unevenly. With unique design and exquisite technique, Wuyou Temple is very attractive and is one of the relatively well preserved temples in Sichuan Province.