“The Leshan Giant Buddha was carved out of the cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in China’s Sichuan province. The statue depicts a sitting Matreyia Buddha, hands resting on his knees, who is so tall that a person can sit comfortably even on his smallest toenail. The statue took 90 years to finish.
Construction was started by a Chinese monk named Haithong in 713 CE who hoped that the Buddha would guide shipping vessels along the rivers’ currents. After Haithong’s death, the project came to a halt for almost 70 years due to a lack of funds, then was restarted and finally completed in 803 CE. The area today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.”
