Leshan Giant Buddha

Leshan Giant Buddha, also known as Lingyun Giant Buddha, is located on the side of Lingyun temple on the East Bank of South Minjiang River in Leshan City, Sichuan Province, near the confluence of Dadu River, Qingyi River and Minjiang River. The seated statue of Maitreya Buddha, 71 meters high, is the largest cliff carved statue in China. Leshan Giant Buddha was excavated in the first year of Kaiyuan (713) of Tang Dynasty and completed in the 19th year of Zhenyuan (803), which lasted about 90 years. Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area, which is composed of Leshan Giant Buddha, Lingyun mountain, Wuyou mountain, giant Reclining Buddha and other scenic spots, belongs to the national 5A tourist attraction, and is a part of the world cultural and natural heritage Emeishan Leshan Giant Buddha. On October 8, 2018, the Jiuqu plank road of Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area was closed before construction. On April 1, 2019, the preliminary research and survey of the damaged area of Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan Province, which lasted for nearly half a year, was completed. The Giant Buddha of Leshan officially "went out of the pass", and the Jiuqu plank road and Buddha foot sightseeing platform of the scenic spot were reopened.

Basic features

The head of Leshan Giant Buddha is the same as the mountain, the foot steps on the river, the hands caress the knees, the posture of the Giant Buddha is well proportioned, the spirit is solemn, and the mountain is chiseled into a dangerous sitting near the river. The Buddha is 71 meters high, 14.7 meters high, 10 meters wide, 1021 bun, 7 meters long ears, 5.6 meters long nose, 5.6 meters long eyebrows, 3.3 meters long mouth and eyes, 3 meters high neck, 24 meters wide shoulders, 8.3 meters long fingers, 28 meters from knee to instep, 8.5 meters wide instep, and more than 100 people can sit on the feet.

On the cliffs along the river on the left and right sides of the Giant Buddha, there are two stone carvings of Dharma protecting heavenly kings, which are more than 16 meters tall. Together with the Giant Buddha, they form a pattern of one Buddha and two heavenly kings. There are also hundreds of niches and thousands of stone sculptures coexisting with the heavenly king, which seems to integrate into a huge Buddhist stone art group. On the left side of the Buddha, along the "cave" is the beginning of the Lingyun plank road excavated in modern times, with a total length of nearly 500 meters. On the right side is the Jiuqu plank road, which was left by the excavation of the Great Buddha in the Tang Dynasty. After the carving of Buddha statues, there were seven storey pavilions (nine or thirteen stories), which were called "Big Buddha Pavilion" and "big statue Pavilion"; the Buddha Pavilion was built and destroyed repeatedly, and the "Lingyun Pavilion" and "Tianning Pavilion" were rebuilt in Song Dynasty; the "Baohong Pavilion" was built in Yuan Dynasty; the "Buddha shed" was built in Chongzhen period of Ming Dynasty and the "Buddha Pavilion" was built in Qing Dynasty.

The stones curled

There are 1051 Luoji on the top of the Buddha, which were numbered with chalk when they were repaired in 1962. From a distance, the bun and the head are integrated, but in fact they are inlaid with stones one by one. There are obvious mosaic cracks at the root of single bun, and there is no mortar bonding. The surface of the bun is plastered with two layers, the inner layer is lime, and the thickness is 5-15mm. In 1991, three pieces of Luoji stones were found in the concave part of the Buddha's right leg. Two of them are relatively complete, with a length of 78 cm, a top of 31.5 × 31.5 cm and a root of 24 × 24 cm.

Wood binaural

There is a hole about 25 cm deep in the inner side of the root of the right ear lobe of the Buddha. The maintenance workers took out many broken things from it, and looked at it carefully, it was rotten wood mud. This confirms Fan Chengda's record in Wu Chuanlu in the Southern Song Dynasty that "the Buddha statues in the world are so big that the two ears are still made of wood.". From this, we can see that there are three pieces of wood exposed inside, the finished shape. It shows that the protruding bridge of nose is also made of wood lining and external decoration of hammer ash. However, it can not be verified whether this was the case when it was completed in the 19th year of Zhenyuan in the Tang Dynasty, or whether it was repaired with this kind of technology when later generations repaired it.

drainage system

Leshan Buddha has a very ingenious drainage system. The two ears and the back of the head of Leshan Giant Buddha have a set of ingenious and invisible drainage system, which plays an important role in protecting the Giant Buddha. So that the Buddha can not be eroded by rain. Wang Shizhen, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, wrote a poem about Leshan Giant Buddha: "spring flows from ancient Buddha bun". Among the 18 layers of Luoji on the head of the Buddha, there are horizontal drains on the 4th, 9th and 18th layers, which are decorated with hammer ash respectively. You can't see them from afar. There is also a drainage ditch in the fold of collar and pattern, and there is a drainage ditch on the left side of the chest, which is connected with the ditch on the back of the right arm. At the back of the two ears, close to the cliff, there are caves connecting the left and the right, which are 9.15 meters long, 1.26 meters wide and 3.38 meters high; at the back of the chest, there are holes at both ends, which are not drilled through each other. The right hole is 16.5 meters deep, 0.95 meters wide and 1.35 meters high, and the left hole is 8.1 meters deep, 0.95 meters wide and 1.1 meters high. These wonderful ditches and caves form a scientific drainage, moisture isolation and ventilation system, which has played an important role in protecting the Buddha and preventing erosive weathering for thousands of years. Because of the kehuishan spring, calcareous compounds with a thickness of about 5-10 cm are coagulated on the inner cliff of the two caves, while the cliff on one side of the Buddha body is still red sandstone protolith and relatively dry. The walls of the two caves, which are not connected to the left and right, are wet, and there is water at the bottom. Water is constantly flowing out of the cave. Therefore, there is a 2-meter-wide soaking zone in the chest of the Buddha. Obviously, this is because the hole is not connected. I don't know why the builders didn't get it through.

Chest stele

According to Huang gaobin and rob Heng, who were in charge of the maintenance in 1962, a closed dirty hole was found in the chest of the Buddha. When you open the hole, you can see that it is filled with scrap iron, dilapidated lead sheet, bricks, etc., while the doorstone is actually a remnant monument of the reconstruction of Tianning Pavilion in the Song Dynasty. After the completion of the Tang Dynasty Buddha, wooden pavilion was built to protect it from the sun and rain. From the remains of many plinths and pile holes on the knees, legs, arms, chests and insteps of the Great Buddha, it is proved that there was a great Buddha Pavilion. It was rebuilt in Song Dynasty, which was called "Tianning Pavilion" and later destroyed. But I don't know what year, for what reason, this day Ningge chronicle remnant stele Tang actually embedded in the Buddha's chest. Repairers moved the monument to Haitong cave for preservation, but it was destroyed in 1966.

Leshan Giant Buddha has a set of ingeniously designed and hidden drainage system, which plays an important role in the protection of the Giant Buddha. Among the 18 layers of Luoji on the head of the Buddha, the 4th, 9th and 18th layers each have a transverse drainage ditch. There is a ditch on the left side of the chest, and there is also a ditch connected with the ditch on the back of the right arm. At the back of the two ears, there are caves connecting the left and the right; at the back of the chest, there are two holes at each end, but they are not drilled through each other. These ditches and caves form a scientific drainage, moisture isolation and ventilation system to prevent the erosive weathering of the Buddha.

Along the edge cloud plank road on the left side of the Buddha, you can directly reach the bottom of the Buddha. If you look up at the Buddha, you will feel that you are looking up to the Buddha. On the right side of the statue is an ancient plank road. The plank road is cut along the cliff on the right side of the Buddha statue. It is extremely steep and twists and turns nine times before it can reach the top of the plank road. This is the right side of the Buddha's head, which is the top of Lingyun mountain. Here you can see the carving art of the head of the Buddha. There are 1021 bun on the top of the Buddha. From a distance, the bun and the head are integrated, but in fact they are inlaid with stones one by one.

There is a hole about 25 cm deep inside the root of the ear lobe of the Buddha's right ear. The 7-meter-long Buddha's ear is not made of original rock, but is made of wooden columns and decorated with hammer ash. A hole was also found in the lower part of the nostril of the Buddha, exposing three pieces of wood in the finished shape. It shows that the protruding bridge of nose is also made of wood lining and external decoration of hammer ash.

There is a closed hole in the chest of the Buddha. Fengmen stone is a remnant monument of the reconstruction of Tianning Pavilion in Song Dynasty. The hole was filled with scrap iron, old lead, bricks and so on. It is said that after the completion of the Tang Dynasty Buddha, a wooden pavilion was built to protect it from the sun and rain. It is proved that there was a great Buddha's pavilion from the remains of many plinths and pile holes on the edges, legs, arms, chest and instep of the Great Buddha. It was rebuilt in the Song Dynasty and was called "Tianning Pavilion", which was later destroyed. The repairers moved the monument to Haishi cave for preservation, but it was destroyed during the cultural revolution.

"Leshan Giant Buddha" is the general name of this giant Buddha located in Leshan City, Sichuan Province. The real official name of this Great Buddha built in the Tang Dynasty has always been a mystery. In fact, many experts later confirmed that the real official name of the stone statue, known as the "Leshan Buddha", should be: the stone statue of damiya in Lingyun temple, Jiazhou.

In 1989, the scientific research project of "preliminary research on the governance of Leshan Giant Buddha" which lasted more than two years was officially launched. In the meantime, during the whole-body "perspective" physical examination of Leshan Giant Buddha by various modern scientific and technological means, it was found that there was a huge cliff tablet on the cliff on the right side of the Giant Buddha niche cave, that is, the monument of the stone statue of Da Maitreya in Lingyun Temple of Jiazhou. The measured height of the monument is 6.6m, which is equivalent to the height of a two-story building; the width of the monument is 3.84M; and the area is 25.08m2. The discovery of this cliff monument is of great historical significance: it not only directly determines the real official name of the stone statue, but also is the only reliable first-hand literature on the study of the "world cultural heritage" of Leshan Giant Buddha.

Leshan Buddha in the long years, still inevitably suffered from all kinds of damage, natural and man-made. It was repaired in every dynasty. In the hundreds of years since Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Buddha suffered from the erosion of natural wind and rain.

1962: the government appropriates special funds for the comprehensive maintenance of the Buddha statue.

February 1982: listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

1990: the head of the Buddha was completely repaired with government funding. At the same time, some supporting facilities and service facilities have been added.

December 1996: Mount Emei Leshan Giant Buddha was approved as "world cultural and natural heritage" by UNESCO and listed in the world natural and cultural heritage list.

June 2010: the protection of the Great Buddha officially started, and the experts of cultural relic protection began their preliminary investigation. In 2010, the management committee will conduct systemic physical examination on the Buddha, determine and formulate maintenance plans, and report to the State Administration of cultural relics and the United Nations

Chinese PinYin : Le Shan Da Fo