Leshan Giant Buddha

The Leshan Giant Buddha is carved directly into a sandstone cliff at the point where the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet below the city of Leshan in southern Sichuan. At 71 metres high it is the tallest stone Buddha in the world and by far the largest pre-modern statue anywhere. It depicts Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, seated with hands resting on his knees and gazing across the water towards Mount Emei. The dimensions are hard to take in from the riverbank: the shoulders are about 28 metres across, the ears around 7 metres long, the head covered with more than a thousand carved coils of hair, and each instep broad enough for a small crowd to stand on.

The statue was begun in the early eighth century by a monk named Hai Tong, who hoped the Buddha's presence would calm the currents that wrecked boats at the confluence. Tradition says that when funding for the work was threatened, he gouged out his own eyes to prove his sincerity. The project stalled after his death and was taken up again by his disciples with the support of regional governors; it was completed in 803, some ninety years after it started. The stone removed from the cliff was dumped into the river, and it is often said that this actually did tame the currents. The builders also cut a hidden drainage system of channels and gutters through the hair, collar and chest, which still carries rainwater away from the face. A thirteen-storey wooden pavilion once sheltered the figure; it was destroyed at the end of the Yuan dynasty, and the statue has stood in the open ever since, with repeated restoration campaigns against weathering and plant growth.

Together with Mount Emei, the Buddha became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, and the scenic area around it on Lingyun Hill includes temples, Han dynasty cliff tombs at Mahao and many walking paths. A steep, narrow walkway on the cliff beside the statue lets visitors descend past its body for close views; it is much busier at weekends, on public holidays and around Chinese New Year. The alternative is to see the whole figure from a sightseeing boat on the river, the best way to take in its full size.

Getting there

The statue is about 1.8 km from central Leshan. The nearest airport listed is Leshan (LSG), 12.2 km away; the established gateway is Chengdu, whose Tianfu (TFU) and Shuangliu (CTU) airports are about 107 and 113 km away by straight line. Leshan is on the Chengdu–Mianyang–Leshan intercity railway, which has run since 2014, and local buses connect the city centre with the scenic area.