Sacred Art & Iconography
Leshan Giant Buddha
Sculpture
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Origin 713 to 803 CE
A seated Buddha seventy-one metres tall carved directly into a red sandstone cliff at the meeting of three rivers in southern Sichuan, the largest pre-modern stone Buddha in the world. It represents Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, hands on knees, feet resting where pilgrims can stand on a single toenail, gazing across the water at the sacred mountain of Emei. A drainage system of hidden channels cut into the hair, collar and back carries away rainwater and has helped the figure survive more than twelve centuries. Visitors descend a steep stair cut beside it or view it from the river. It is inscribed by UNESCO together with Mount Emei.
Facts
Site
Type of SiteRock-cut or underground sanctuary 2 Type of SiteMonumental sacred image 2 Origins
Origin Period Date of CreationCarving began in 713 CE and continued, with a long interruption after the founding monk's death, for ninety years, to completion in 803 CE 2 Commissioned ByConceived and begun by the Buddhist monk Haitong, who raised the initial funds by public donation to calm the turbulent confluence of the Min, Qingyi and Dadu rivers for the safety of boat traffic. Work stalled for want of funds after his death and was resumed and completed under the successive patronage of two Jiannan Xichuan military commissioners, Zhangqiu Jianqiong and Wei Gao. 1 Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightThe statue itself, carved in the eighth century, carries no copyright as an expression. A modern photograph of it may carry its own separate copyright depending on who took it and when; this atlas describes the work rather than reproducing an image of it. 2 Status
Status TodayStanding, but maintained as a museum or heritage monument 2 UNESCO World HeritageInscribed on the World Heritage List 3 Inscribed 1996 within the Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area Custody
Current LocationCarved into the cliff face at the confluence of the Min, Qingyi and Dadu rivers, near the city of Leshan, Sichuan province, China 2 Current CustodianThe Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area administration, within the Mount Emei Scenic Area including the Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area, a UNESCO World Heritage property of the People's Republic of China 3 Custody HistoryAn internal drainage system carved into the statue, channels hidden in the hair, collar, chest and behind the ears, has carried rainwater away from the sandstone and protected it from serious erosion for over a thousand years. The statue has remained in place and in continuous religious use since its completion, unlike a housed image that can be lost to fire or collapse; its modern custodians conduct ongoing cleaning, crack repair and, in recent years, three dimensional scanning to monitor its condition. 1 Physical Form
MediumCarved in place from the living red sandstone of the cliff; the original ears were fashioned separately from wood covered in clay and attached to the head 1 DimensionsAbout seventy one metres tall; the head is 14.7 metres high and 10 metres wide, each ear about 7 metres long, the nose 5.6 metres long, the shoulders 28 metres across, and the instep large enough to seat more than a hundred people 1 Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectMaitreya, the bodhisattva revered in Buddhist tradition as the future Buddha, shown seated 2 Devotional FunctionConceived as an act of Buddhist merit intended to calm the dangerous river confluence below it for the safety of boat traffic; remains an active site of Buddhist veneration today and, together with the surrounding Mount Emei Scenic Area, one of the most visited pilgrimage and tourist destinations in Sichuan. 1 Open Questions
Attributed ToNo individual mason, workshop or sculptor is named in any surviving record of the carving; only the Buddhist monk who conceived the project and the two officials who later funded its completion are recorded by name. Learn More
The Monk Who Carved a River Calm
The largest pre-modern stone Buddha in the world was built as a piece of hydrological engineering wrapped in an act of faith.
The problem. At Leshan three rivers meet, and the confluence was violent, boats were wrecked and lives lost in the currents. Around 713 a monk named Haitong began carving a colossal Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, into the cliff above the water, on the belief that the Buddha's presence would calm it.
The engineering. There was also a physical mechanism. Cutting the seventy-one-metre figure sent an enormous volume of rock into the river below, altering the currents; and the statue itself was given a concealed drainage system, channels through the hair, the collar and the back, to carry off rainwater and slow the erosion of the soft red sandstone. That system is much of why it has lasted more than twelve centuries in the open, after the great wooden pavilion that once sheltered it decayed away.
The patience. Haitong is said to have blinded himself rather than surrender the project's funds to officials. Work stopped at his death and was finished by later patrons around 803, about ninety years from first cut to completion. The water below is calmer now; the tradition credits the Buddha, and engineers credit the spoil, and both are recorded here.
Ninety Years, One Project
The Leshan Buddha took roughly ninety years and three generations of work to complete, and it has survived over a thousand years partly because of a drainage system hidden inside the statue itself.
Ninety years, one project
Construction began in 713 CE under the monk Haitong and continued across the efforts of successive patrons and craftsmen after his death, not reaching completion until around 803 CE, an unusually long single construction span reflecting both the statue's scale and the intermittent funding and political support such a massive undertaking required across changing circumstances.
A drainage system nobody sees
Concealed within the statue's structure is a network of channels, gutters and drainage holes, cut into the hair, ears, clothing folds and other features, engineered specifically to carry rainwater away from the stone surface and prevent the kind of erosion that would otherwise be expected to badly damage a monument of this exposure and age over more than twelve centuries.
As this entry's companion article covers
The claim that carving the statue, and the rubble displaced during construction, altered the currents at the dangerous river confluence below it enough to make the waters safer for boats, the specific reason Haitong is said to have initiated the project, is addressed directly in this entry's companion article rather than repeated here.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
The figure is Maitreya, the buddha of the age to come.
Contained In
Depicts
Housed At
The statue is carved directly into Lingyun Hill; the two are physically one object, but this atlas records the cult image and its precinct as separate pages, following the same convention as every other housed-at cult image on the atlas.
Sources
Open Questions (1 open question)
Who Carved the Leshan Giant Buddha?
No inscription, temple record or contemporary chronicle names the sculptor, master mason or workshop who carved the statue, even though the monk who conceived the project and the two officials who later funded its completion are all recorded by name.
What would resolve this A Tang-period donative or masons' inscription naming a carving workshop, of a kind found at other major Tang Buddhist rock-carving sites but not yet identified at Leshan itself, or a documentary source from the Jiannan Xichuan administration not yet examined.
Chinese Buddhist art history, Tang-period epigraphyEncyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
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