Published on December 6, 2008

China in Pictures

Leshan Buddha, China

The Buddha statue in Leshan, Sichuan province of China is a representation of Buddha Maitreya who currently - according to the buddhist scriptures - resides in the Tuṣita Heaven and will be a successor of the historic Śākyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.

The Leshan statue is the largest carved Buddha statue in the world, being 71 meters tall and 28 meters wide at the shoulders. It is 18 meters taller than the Buddha statue at Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan, destroyed by the Talibans in 2001.

The statue carving took 90 years, from AD 713 until 803, during the Tang Dynasty. It is currently part of the the World Cultural Heritage.

Photo: Cristina Stefanita

Photo: Ariel Steiner, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.