Large buddha statue in china. The statue of Maitreya the Loving Buddha was unveiled in Ulaanbaatar. Grand Buddha of Wuxi
Chinese city Leshan in Sichuan province became famous throughout the world thanks to its giant Buddha statue. To date, this sculpture is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest sculptural image of this deity. What are the dimensions of the Buddha statue in Leshan and what is its history?
Legends about the creation of the giant statue
The largest sculpture of Buddha that has survived to this day was created over 90 years. The date of commencement of work on its construction is considered to be 713. The giant Buddha statue in Leshan is carved from the Lingyunshan rock. The sculpture was originally located inside the thirteen-story Daxiangge Temple, or Great Image Pavilion. In the seventeenth century, the wooden structure burned down. But the giant statue was not damaged at all due to the fire. Now the majestic huge Buddha can be seen from a considerable distance. There are many legends about the creation of this sculpture. According to the most common version, it was the monk of Hai Tong who proposed making the giant statue. He hoped that the statue of Buddha could pacify the turbulent rivers Minyan, Dadu and Qingyi, which intersect in this area. Interestingly, the water flows have actually become calmer. The thing is that during construction, stone blocks fell into the river. Another legend says that the Leshan Buddha statue was created to protect the area from heavy rains.
The largest Buddha in exact dimensions
The large-scale statue of Buddha created during his reign amazes even engineers with its size. The deity is depicted in a sitting position, with his hands resting relaxed on his knees. The statue is detailed and has survived to this day in excellent condition. The statue is made of stone, and only some of its individual elements are carved from wood. The total height of the sculpture is 71 meters. At the same time, the height of the head is 15 meters. The shoulder width of the stone Buddha is almost 30 meters. The length of the fingers is 8 meters. The nose of the giant statue is also striking in its size - as much as 5.5 meters. The length of the toe is 1.6 meters. Despite its scale, the Leshan Buddha statue does not look formidable or intimidating. On the contrary, the statue exudes calm and tranquility.
Description and photo of the attraction
The largest Buddha sculpture in the world is located in the park temple complex. The majestic statue looks at sacred mountain Emeishan. On the walls around the giant figure you can see relief images of Bodhisattvas. There are more than 90 of them here. There are also many images of Buddha himself. The deity's feet rest on the river, and his head ends at the level of the mountain. On par with Buddha's ears is Observation deck, which tourists can climb along a long stone staircase. From here you have a breathtaking view of the city. At the head of the sculpture is the Pagoda of Souls - active today Buddhist temple. It is worth noting that the Leshan Buddha statue is not the only attraction in the area. The large-scale sculpture is located on the territory of a large complex. It's luxurious natural Park, on the territory of which you can see many shrines, historical architectural structures, sculptures.
Amazing facts and myths about the giant statue
Today the Buddha statue in Leshan (China) is included in the list World Heritage UNESCO. Despite its considerable age, the statue is perfectly preserved. Many local residents Over the centuries, this fact has been explained by the mystical properties of the image of the deity. But in fact, the secret of the sculpture’s durability lies in the drainage system hidden from prying eyes. The creators of the statue hid a whole network of grooves and grottoes in the folds of clothing, on the head, arms and chest of the Buddha. Thanks to this solution, the sculpture is reliably protected from weathering and is practically not afraid of the effects of meteorological precipitation and temperature changes. Some standard-sized statues located in the same temple complex as the giant Buddha are seriously damaged. According to experts, the sculptures were damaged by vandals, and not by natural phenomena.
Useful information for tourists
Where is the Buddha statue in Leshan, how can tourists get to this attraction? From Chengdu you can get to the giant statue in 2.5 hours by bus or taxi. Airplanes fly to Chengdu from Beijing. Entrance to the temple complex is paid, the cost of visiting is 90 yuan. You can also admire the large-scale sculpture while walking on water bus. Every day, many tourists come to Leshan to see the local attractions, in particular the most famous among them is the giant statue. In Buddhist culture, local sculptures and buildings also have religious significance and are revered as shrines.
In the Chinese province of Shanxi, archaeologists have discovered several thousand Buddha figurines hidden in three caves. The height of the figurines is 12-25 cm. Inscriptions found immediately on stone slabs give reason to assume that the time of creation of the figurines dates back to the reign of the Ming dynasty.
As scientists say, such items were popular during the Tang Dynasty, so this find can be considered unique.
Buddhism in China has a history of thousands of years, and images of Buddha are found everywhere in the country. China is home to many Buddha statues, both ancient and modern. We will talk about the largest of them below.
1. Buddha from Leshan.
This is perhaps the most famous ancient Buddha statue in China, which has gained worldwide fame. The statue is located in the central Chinese province of Sichuan. A huge statue of Buddha is carved right into the rocks of Lingyunshan Mountain. The time of construction of the statue dates back to the reign of the Tang Dynasty. Work on its creation began in 713 and took ninety years. The face of the stone sculpture is directed towards Eimeishan - sacred mountain, towering directly opposite. The head of the statue rises level with the surrounding rocks, and the legs of the statue rest against river waters. The height of the statue reaches 71 m, and the width of the shoulders is about 30 m. This is one of the largest Buddha statues on the planet. The passing centuries have left their traces on the statue and changed the original appearance of the statue. Once upon a time, the Buddha was decorated with a wooden gilded “armor”, which served as protection for the statue from bad weather, but during a fire the wooden shell of the statue burned down. Local residents even say in this regard that slowly the mountain turns into Buddha, and Buddha turns into a mountain.
2. Buddha of the Spring Temple.
This giant Buddha statue is located in Zhaocun, a small village in the Middle Kingdom. The statue depicts one of the 5 sacred Buddhas - Buddha Vairocana. The statue was created after the Afghan Taliban blew up several ancient Buddha statues. In China, they perceived this fact very negatively and, in response, built their own tall statue Buddhas on the planet. As a result, a statue of Buddha appeared in Henan province, symbolizing the respect of the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom for the Buddhist heritage of their country. Construction of the statue proceeded at an accelerated pace and was completed in 2002. The height of the Buddha from Zhaotsun reaches 128 meters. The statue itself reaches a height of 108 meters, and another 20 meters is the base of the statue, built in the shape of a lotus flower. And this entire structure rests on a 25-meter pedestal. In 2010, a small reconstruction was carried out architectural complex and as a result, the hill on which the statue is located was processed in the form of two huge stone steps, which added height to the structure. After reconstruction, the height of the complex reached 208 meters, which was recorded in the Guinness Book. During the construction of the statue, 15,000 tons of structural steel, 108 kilograms of gold, and 33 tons of copper were used. The statue was created in parts, which were then mounted on a single structure. The number of components from which the statue is assembled is 1100 units. The construction of the statue cost $55 million, of which $18 million went directly to the statue.
3. Grand Buddha from Wuxi.
This Buddha statue is located in Jiangsu Province and is the world's largest Buddha statue made of bronze. The height of the statue, rising on Lingshan Hill, reaches 88 meters. The weight of the giant statue is more than 800 tons. You can get to the statue by climbing a staircase of 217 steps. The Grand Buddha is located near Xiangfu Temple and Taihu Lake, both popular tourist attractions. Recently, a temple in the shape of Buddha's hand was completed near the Grand Buddha.
4. Big Buddha of Hong Kong.
This giant statue of Shakyamuni Buddha rises on Mount Ngon Phin, located on Lantau Island. According to the architects, the statue should symbolize harmony in the relationship between nature and people, man and faith. The design of the structure began in 1976, but work on the construction of the statue began only in 1990. High-ranking representatives of Buddhism from China, Japan, Korea, India and other countries came to Hong Kong for the grand opening of the complex in 1993. statue Big Buddha assembled on a steel frame on which 202 individual bronze parts are attached. The face of the statue is covered with gilding. The Buddha sits on a three-tiered pedestal in the shape of a lotus flower, which is a copy of the Beijing Temple of Heaven. The Buddha reaches 34 meters in height and weighs more than 250 tons. The area of the architectural complex is more than 6.5 thousand sq.m. A staircase with 268 steps leads to the statue. The Buddha sits in a meditative position, and the right hand of the statue shows Abhaya mudra, which protects and dispels fears. On the palm of the Buddha there is a wheel of Dharma, which is supposed to symbolize progress. The fingers of the statue’s left hand show the Kubera mudra, which helps to make wishes come true. In front of the statue there are 6 small bronze statues of bodhisattvas who present gifts to the Buddha. These gifts symbolize meditation, wisdom, patience, morality - everything necessary to achieve enlightenment.
Today, let's return to China for a change - I owe you a favor from my October trip: the Buddha statue in Leshan. I deliberately left it for last, since this monument of ancient sculpture impressed me most from my last trip. Of course: for a thousand years, the Leshan Buddha was the tallest sculpture in the whole world!
So, let's go get to know this ancient giant better.
1.
The city of Leshan, where this attraction is located, is located about an hour's drive from. The Chinese began carving the figure of a huge Buddha into the mountain at the beginning of the 8th century AD, during the Tang Dynasty. The work lasted 90 years! The famous ancient monument is located near the city center - this is what the entrance to the territory looks like.
2. Giant Buddha- part of the UNESCO heritage, and also awarded the highest category "AAAAA" by the Chinese Ministry of Tourism. At the same time, it is surprising that there is no huge parking lot the size of three stadiums, no wide boulevard a kilometer long, and other delights of top-class Chinese attractions. You buy a ticket for 90 yuan and enter without much fanfare.
3. This is what the path looks like from the entrance to the big Buddha. What kind of poverty is this?! Where is the usual luxury? Someone clearly didn't notice!
4. Well, okay, at least the hieroglyphs were carved on the rock. The red color harmonizes well with green vegetation. Do you remember when we were kids that we were told that these colors don’t go together?..
5. Seven minutes of ascent, and the top of the giant Buddha is visible in front of us.
6. So that you understand its size, I sent vityokr stand next to each other for scale. Do you see? He is that tiny blue thing above Buddha's ear.
7. Buddha has a fashionable hairstyle. Look at those curls!
8. A seated figure is carved into a steep rock. Its height is 71 meters. For comparison, the Statue of Liberty is only 34 meters, if you do not take into account its huge pedestal. I know what you will say: “Leva, but the Statue of Liberty stands on its own, it was built, and not hollowed out in a ready-made mountain!” It's like that. But the Leshan Buddha was created 1100 years earlier! I think we can make a discount based on age.
By the way, Russians can be proud here, because the Motherland on Mamayev Kurgan is already 85 meters high, larger than our Buddha (and Freedom nervously smokes on the sidelines). But again, this is 1967, not 803.
9. But let's return to Buddha. The most interesting point of the attraction is that you can climb down the sheer wall next to the sitting giant. That is, we started from the level of his head, and we can climb down the stairs, straight to the foot of the monument.
10. Let's go down to the level of the Buddha's hands. It's about halfway there.
11. In the passages hollowed out in these walls, the ground corners are clearly visible, characteristic of old buildings in soft rock. . Time has literally worked here.
12. It's still a long way to reach the giant's feet!
13. The stairs here are narrow and steep, but if you hold on to the handrails, they are not scary.
14. And here is the Buddha's foot. To give you an idea of the size, each nail of this sculpture can easily seat a couple of people.
15. We needed more that day, so we arrived early, right before the opening of the attraction, so there aren’t many people now. Here the monk comes down for morning prayer.
16. View of Buddha from below. It's not easy to squeeze it all into the frame; this requires a fairly wide-angle lens. I barely coped with this task.
17. If you look closely at the Buddha’s feet, you can see that it was restored not long ago: the outer layer of the statue is plaster, not stone. However, there is no need to doubt the authenticity of the Buddha.
18. That is, I am sure that for preservation it is periodically covered with plaster and cement, and painted. But under this protective layer there is a real monument of antiquity. Here, for example, is our Buddha in a photograph from 1936:
19. Someone came to pray. I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy asks Buddha for courage and bravery.
20. Let's take another look at the Buddha from below, and let's go.
21. By the way, the mountain in which the Buddha is hollowed out is located right on the river bank. If you have enough time for this, you can sail past the statue on a river boat. From there you get a better view of the entire giant sculpture. But we were in a hurry, and we didn’t have the opportunity to do that, so here’s a photo from Wikipedia:
22. True, you may be unlucky with the boat: if visibility is low, the Buddha will disappear in the fog. And on the day we arrived it was not very visible. So during the visit, we did not see a single boat.
23. The road back leads along a path built directly above the water in the rock wall.
24. But then you still have to climb back up.
25. While we were walking up and down (for about 40 minutes), it accumulated great amount tourists, we were very lucky that we managed to see everything before the tourist buses arrived.
26. For example, the staircase leading down has now become more like the shortage line in the late USSR.
27. What else is interesting here?.. You know, when you visit some high TV tower, or, will there necessarily be a poster listing the other most famous high-rise buildings in the world for comparison? Well, it turns out it’s the same story with giant Buddhas: here you can see a list of the main achievements of Buddha-building.
29. And of course, there is a tall pagoda. I counted 13 levels. But this is the same remake as .
30. In general, it’s very pleasant here - and the absence of the usual pathos for this kind of attractions most likely played a major role in the fact that I liked this Buddha almost more than anything else I saw.
However, I think his size and age also helped here.
The Maitreya Buddha statue is one of the tallest and oldest Buddha statues in the world. This grandiose creation is located in the Chinese province of Sichuan, near the city of Leshan. The gaze of the 71-meter-high statue has been directed towards the sacred Mount Emeishan located opposite for more than a thousand years. The figure of God is visible from several tens of kilometers away.
Until the middle XVII century The body of the Big Buddha up to the very head was hidden by thirteen floors of the wooden Daxiangge Temple, protecting the shrine from rain and snow. This building was later destroyed by a strange fire, which could not be extinguished despite all efforts. After this, Buddha in all his stone beauty and divine steadfastness appeared before the eyes of ordinary mortals.
Construction of the statue began during the Tang Dynasty and continued for 90 years. According to legend, by erecting a sacred monument, the monk Hai Tun wanted to appease the element of water, because too often local residents became victims of stormy rivers.
It is worth noting that the very name of the province “Sichuan” is translated as “Four Rivers”. The monk chose a place for the monument in a rock near the confluence of two rivers - Minjiang and Daduhe. For the next 20 years, Hai Tong wandered the lands of China and collected donations for the construction of the statue. In 713, when the necessary amount was collected, the monk returned to Sichuan to begin implementing his plan.
But before he could begin to make his dream come true, government officials came to him and demanded half of the donations collected in exchange for local government support for the construction. The monk’s answer was short and clear: “I would rather gouge out my eyes than give away the Buddha’s treasures.” When the extortionists came to Hai Tun again, he fulfilled his oath by drawing a knife and depriving himself of one eye. Confused and dissatisfied, the officials decided to leave the old man alone, but not to help him in his endeavors.
By the time of Hai Tun's death, the statue was completed only up to the knees, but the monk's work was continued by his students and by 803 the statue of Maitreya Buddha was completed. Carving a monument into the rocks, workers threw stone fragments into the river. Over time, this reduced the intensity of the water flow. Thus, it turned out that Buddha still tamed the harsh temper of the stormy rivers.
Currently, the statue of Maitreya Buddha is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts many tourists and pilgrims from all over the world. Some are looking here for answers, others for healing, and others come for the contemplation of divine majesty, which even time cannot destroy.
Video – Great Buddha (Sichuan, China)
When going on a trip, people initially set themselves a goal: to relax, have fun or learn something new. We should stop at the last component and consider it more deeply. To get new emotions and fill your hearts with impressions, you should go to China and visit the Buddha statue. Imagine, a giant statue of Maitreya Buddha, the teacher of humanity, is carved into the rock.
The Buddha statue is located in China, in Leshan, Sichuan Province. You will be delighted to see this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Historical Facts of Big Buddha Statue in China
According to legend, the monk Hai Tun, in order to appease the elements, decided to carve an image of the supreme deity in the rock. For twenty years he collected money for the construction of a Buddha sculpture. And when, finally, the required amount was collected, local authorities decided to take it to finance the city’s infrastructure. Hai Tun's refusal to share money with local authorities caused them discontent and refusal to help with construction. Having begun carving, the monk died when the statue was half finished; the rest of the work was continued by his students. Work on the construction of this majestic sculpture began in 713 and lasted for 90 years. The formation of the Big Buddha sculpture in China occurred during the reign of the Tang Dynasty.
The workers worked tirelessly for many years in the name of great art, and faith helped them in this. And decades later, the statue of the Big Buddha of China was created as the embodiment of the universe.
The statue symbolizes the unbroken spirit and the purity of people’s faith in higher powers; this fact still attracts the attention of not only hundreds of tourists, but also spiritual followers of Buddhism.
Buddha statue in China, what is it like?
The Buddha’s face is turned to Emeishan, a sleeping mountain that is located opposite the statue, and gathers many who want to look into the eyes of the legendary symbol of faith of all Buddhists who are in a fifteen-meter head. The ears of the statue are carved from wood, 7 meters each. And a dozen tourists can fit on one toe. The location and appearance of the statue is not accidental; it contains both mystical and obvious facts that beckon deep into history, stretching to this day. The statue stands in a place where three rivers merge, which create dangerous gyres, and where many local residents die.
His hands are on his knees. He sits on the same level with Lingyunshan Mountain, and his feet rest against the river, from which coolness emanates. It is not for nothing that the statue is called the Big Buddha in China, its dimensions are simply stunning, just imagine the height of the sculpture - 71 m, and the width of the shoulders - 30 m, thanks to these dimensions the statue is recognized as the largest in the world.
Functions of the Big Buddha statue in China
The attraction bears not only a spiritual, majestic character, attracting with its appearance, but also a number of other important functions:
- shelter from rain;
- erosion protection;
- carrying out water supply structures for drainage systems.
These features contribute to improving the lives of Chinese residents.
But no matter how the world changes, and no matter what happens to the external indicators of the statue, it will always remain powerful and captivating the views of others.
It's all about her, the majestic statue of Buddha, and if you decide to spend your trip with the goal of learning new things and finding inspiration, this sculpture is an excellent option. Be one of the hundreds of tourists who travel every year to the foot of the Big Buddha in China, a majestic architectural monument. Climb to a hundred-meter height and breathe in the air saturated with faith and awareness of the truths of life.