The largest Buddha in the world. The largest buddha in the world, Leshan, China Buddha statue in ancient 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 carved into the rock giant statue Maitreya Buddha is the teacher of humanity.

The Buddha statue is located in China, in Leshan, Sichuan Province. You will be delighted to see the attraction included in the list World Heritage UNESCO.

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 purity of people’s faith in higher power, 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.

The largest Buddha in the world, China

There are places in the world that you seem to know everything about, that you see repeatedly in photographs, but all the same, when you once again come across an interesting image, you admire the people who did it. And when the opportunity presents itself to see them in person, you are filled with such excitement that it seems that this is one of the happiest moments of life.

. Sooner or later he will appear on Earth, achieve enlightenment and preach dharma - the path of piety. The Leshan Buddha statue is one of the oldest in the world. It is installed in the place where three rivers merge, the oncoming waters of which create dangerous whirlpools.

As the legend goes, the monk Hai Tun decided to appease the elements by carving a sculptural image of the supreme deity in the rock. For many years the monk wandered through cities and villages, collecting money for the construction of the statue, and in 713 he began construction. Hai Tong died when the statue of Buddha was made only to the knees, but he managed to achieve his noble goal. While cutting down the statue in the rock, the workers threw stone fragments into the river, as a result of which it was partially covered water flows . Thus, it turned out that the Buddha tamed the stormy temper of the river. According to legend, when the local ruler demanded that Hai Tun give him the donations collected for the construction of the statue, he replied: “I would rather gouge out my eyes than give away the treasures of Buddha.” Soon the ruler came to the monk for money, but he pulled out a knife and fulfilled his oath, depriving himself of an eye. The confused extortionist retreated. After the death of the monk, his work was continued by the rulers of Sichuan, and after 90 years,.

in 803 the statue of the Enlightened One was completed Buddha statue in Leshan

- the embodiment of the universe. A giant, 70-meter tall Buddha sits facing the expanse of water, with his hands on his knees. His huge, 15-meter head rises level with the rock, and his feet rest against the river. The Buddha's ears (each 7 meters long) are carved from wood and skillfully attached to the stone face. The enlightened one is “dressed” in a stone tunic, the folds of which drain rainwater, preventing rock cracking. In the walls surrounding the statue are carved stone images of 90 bodhisattvas - spiritual mentors of people. At the head of the giant a pagoda is installed and broken temple complex

A stream of tourists, like a swarm of bees, surrounds the Buddha's head on all sides and cascades down the rock to his feet. A small group of tourists can sit on any of the giant’s toes (the length of the toe is 1.6 m). Each viewer tries to find the most convenient point for viewing, but is forced to examine the statue only from a side angle. From the top of the rock, the impartial face of the Enlightened One is visible, while his legs and body are hidden under the ledge. Below, the entire panorama is occupied by the knees of Buddha, above which a gigantic face can be seen somewhere above.

The statue is not created for contemplation: in Buddhism, the entire universe is nothing more than the body of the Buddha (Buddha-kaya) or the body of Truth (dharma-kaya), and it is incomprehensible through the senses or the mind. But it is Dharma-kaya that connects a person with the truly existing, allowing him to achieve the purest and highest state of “supramundane” existence. As they said in China: “We achieve Perfect Enlightenment when the heart merges with the base of the stone monument.” Interestingly, in the Middle Ages, the body of Buddha was hidden under a 13-tiered temple-tower, but this building burned down in a fire.

The Big Buddha impresses not only with its size, but also with its expressiveness: the appearance of the giant literally breathes nobility, grandeur and kindness.

Maitreya Buddha in Leshan- pacifier of the water element.

Inside the sculptural work there is a skillfully constructed drainage structure, which is almost impossible to notice from the outside. Grottoes and grooves, hidden in the folds of clothing, on the hands, head, and chest of the Buddha, serve as drainage systems and protect the sculpture from weathering and destruction.

At the top, on the mountain itself, at the head of the Buddha, there is a 38-meter-high pagoda of souls, as well as a temple complex and a park. On the walls around the giant there are carved images of Bodhisattvas (there are more than 90 of them) and numerous images of Buddha.

Maitreya is considered the future incarnation of the Great Teacher of humanity, and he is revered by all Buddhist schools, believing that one day he will appear on Earth, will definitely achieve enlightenment and begin to preach to people the path of piety - the dharma.

in 803 the statue of the Enlightened One was completed installed at the confluence of three rivers. Once upon a time, their rapid streams, meeting, created stormy and dangerous whirlpools. According to the legend, Buddhist monk Hai Tun, seeing this, decided to pacify the elements by sculpting a giant sculpture of the Teacher in the adjacent mountain gorge.

Now, arriving in Leshan, any tourist can admire the impressive sculpture. The face of Maitreya Buddha is turned towards the river, giant hands folded on his knees; its 15-meter head reaches the top of the rock, and its huge legs (toes are about 1.6 m long) almost rest on the river. The Teacher's 7-meter ears, carved from durable wood, are skillfully fitted to the stone face. The Buddha is dressed in a tunic, along the carefully carved stone folds of which water flows during rain, preventing the destruction of the rock.

At the head of the colossal monument there is a temple complex with a small park, and in the rocks surrounding the statue there are carved statues of 90 bodhisattvas - the spiritual mentors of humanity.

In the Middle Ages, the Buddha sculpture was hidden under a 13-tiered temple built above it, but this building was destroyed by fire, and now, as before, the rocks are the only walls for the giant statue.

Interestingly, it is almost impossible to completely take in the Buddha statue in Leshan: an impartial face is open from above, but the legs are hidden under a mountain ledge, and from below the legs can be seen perfectly, but the face of the statue is almost completely covered by huge knees. The best angle is from the side, but it doesn’t allow you to see the entire monument in detail.

This feature was not given to the sculpture by chance. It is perfectly consistent with the Buddhist doctrine of the universe, according to which the whole world is the body of the Buddha (Buddha-kaya) or the body of the Law (Dharma-kaya), which is incomprehensible from the point of view of the senses and mind. That's why buddha statue in china not intended for viewing. Being the material embodiment of the Dharma-kaya, it connects people with the truly existing, allowing them to achieve a special state of the purest supermundane existence, which, according to Buddhists, is the true goal of every person’s life. On this occasion, the Chinese say the following: “We achieve Perfect Enlightenment at the moment when our heart merges with the base of the stone statue.”

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 Chengdu, where tourists can meet giant pandas. 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. The Giant Buddha is part of the UNESCO heritage, and has also been awarded the highest level of "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 hollowed out in sheer cliff. 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 in height, 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, characteristic of old buildings in soft rock, are clearly visible. We observed a similar effect in Petra in Jordan. 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. That day we still had to fly to Hong Kong for Halloween, 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. My soap dish 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, unlike the Great Wall of China, there is no doubt about 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 tall TV tower, or an observation deck on a skyscraper, there will definitely 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 the “ancient” town of Gubei.

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.

There are objects in the world that you seem to know everything about, that you see repeatedly in photographs, but all the same, when you once again encounter an interesting image, you admire the people who did it.

Let's take another look and read about this world famous Buddha statue.

In the Chinese province of Sichuan, near the city of Leshan, a giant sculpture of Maitreya Buddha is carved into a rock. For 1000 years, the Leshan statue, 71 meters high, held the first position in the ranking of the tallest monuments in the world. According to the ancient architects, the great must be embodied in gigantic proportions, because Maitreya is revered by all schools of Buddhism. Maitreya is the future Teacher of humanity. Sooner or later he will appear on Earth, achieve enlightenment and preach dharma - the path of piety. The Buddha statue in Leshan is one of the oldest in the world. It is installed in the place where three rivers merge, the oncoming waters of which create dangerous whirlpools.

As the legend says, the monk Hai Tun decided to appease the elements by carving a sculptural image of the supreme deity in the rock. For many years the monk wandered through cities and villages, collecting money for the construction of the statue, and in 713 he began construction. Hai Tong died when the statue of Buddha was made only to the knees, but he managed to achieve his noble goal.

While cutting down the statue in the rock, the workers threw stone fragments into the river, as a result of which the water streams were partially covered. Thus, it turned out that the Buddha tamed the stormy temper of the river. According to legend, when the local ruler demanded that Hai Tun give him the donations collected for the construction of the statue, he replied: “I would rather gouge out my eyes than give away the Buddha’s treasures.” Soon the ruler came to the monk for money, but he pulled out a knife and fulfilled his oath, depriving himself of an eye. The confused extortionist retreated. After the death of the monk, his work was continued by the rulers of Sichuan, and 90 years later, in 803, the statue of the Enlightened One was completed.

in 803 the statue of the Enlightened One was completed - the embodiment of the universe. A giant, 70-meter tall Buddha sits facing the expanse of water, with his hands on his knees. His huge, 15-meter head rises level with the rock, and his feet rest against the river. The Buddha's ears (each 7 meters long) are carved from wood and skillfully attached to the stone face. The enlightened one is “dressed” in a stone tunic, the folds of which drain rainwater, preventing rock cracking.

In the walls surrounding the statue are carved stone images of 90 bodhisattvas - spiritual mentors of people. At the head of the giant there is a pagoda and a temple complex with a park. Against the background of the monument, spectators appear to be tiny insects.

The Big Buddha impresses not only with its size, but also with its expressiveness: the appearance of the giant literally breathes nobility, grandeur and kindness.

Maitreya Buddha in Leshan - pacifier of the water element.

in 803 the statue of the Enlightened One was completed installed at the confluence of three rivers. Once upon a time, their rapid flows, meeting, created stormy and dangerous whirlpools. According to legend, the Buddhist monk Hai Tun, seeing this, decided to pacify the elements by sculpting a giant sculpture of the Teacher in the adjacent mountain gorge.

Now, arriving in Leshan, any tourist can admire the impressive sculpture. The face of Maitreya Buddha is turned towards the river, giant hands folded on his knees; its 15-meter head reaches the top of the rock, and its huge legs (toes are about 1.6 m long) almost touch the river. The Teacher's 7-meter ears, carved from durable wood, are skillfully fitted to the stone face. The Buddha is dressed in a tunic, along the carefully carved stone folds of which water flows during rain, preventing the destruction of the rock.

And you can definitely be sure that this statue does not contain

Sichuan, near the city of Leshan, is considered the largest Buddha statue on Earth. Moreover, this is the highest sculptural creation in the whole world for a millennium. The statue is carved into the thickness of the rock in a place where three rivers flow: Daduhe, Minjiang and Qinjiang. Previously, these three rivers were turbulent streams that brought a lot of troubles and misfortunes to everyone.

History of the construction of the statue

In 713, the monk Haitun decided to save people from the disasters that three treacherous rivers brought them. He gathered craftsmen and decided to carve the Big Buddha on the rock. The largest Buddha statue took ninety years to build; it was a difficult and lengthy job. To protect the sculpture from snow and rain, a wooden tower “Dasyange”, thirteen tiers high, was built above it. But later, during riots and wars, this building was destroyed by fire. Bodhisattvas are carved on the north and south sides of the Big Buddha. For many years the statue of the Big Buddha was under open air. During this period the image has changed a lot. Only in 1962 did the Chinese government decide to restore the creation. On this moment The statue belongs to the important cultural values of the state.

Ancient World Heritage Site

This world's largest stone Buddha sits on a rock and watches over three rivers at his feet. The height of the statue is 71 meters, for more than a thousand years this creation has been ranked first. Ancient architects assured that everything great should be embodied in gigantic proportions, and the great monk Maitreya is revered by all Buddhist schools as the future teacher of all mankind.

The Legend of the Great Statue

According to ancient legend, monk Haitun 1200 years ago decided to carve the image of the supreme deity in the rock in order to appease the elements of the three rivers. For many years, the monk collected funds for the construction of the statue in cities and villages, and only in 713 colossal construction began. The monk did not live to see the completion of the Buddha statue; when he died, it was carved only to the knees. But his great goal was achieved - the stone fragments that the workers threw into the river partially pacified the water flows. After Haitong's death, construction was continued by the rulers of Sichuan, and in 803, 90 years after the start of construction, the image of the Enlightened Buddha was completed.

tourist attraction

The face of the Enlightened Buddha is visible from the top of the rock, but his body and legs are hidden by a ledge. No matter how hard tourists try to find the most comfortable spot For full review, the Buddha statue is visible only from a side view. If you look at the sculpture from below, the entire panorama is occupied by the Buddha’s knees, and somewhere far above you can see his gigantic face. But in Buddhism, sculptures are not created for contemplation; the universe cannot be comprehended with the help of the mind or feelings. The entire universe is the body of Truth, or the body of Buddha. But it is dharma that allows a person to achieve enlightened existence in earthly life.

You can enter the park adjacent to the statue for 80 yuan. To get closer to the statue, tourists must climb the steps, with a cliff on one side and a rock on the other.

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