Hi guys, today I want to talk about a well-known awe-inspiring site, the Leshan Giant Buddha,
which was carved into the side of a mountain. This colossal statue is over 1,200-years-old
and is considered the largest stone Buddha in the world. It’s a 71-metre or 233’
tall sandstone statue depicting Maitreya. During my research, I found irregularities
pointing to the possibility that this megalithic Buddha statue was repurposed from a much older
site, possibly from prehistory time.
The Leshan Giant Buddha is located in Sichuan, Southeast China. This calmly seated iconic
figure is located on the shady side of Mount Lingyun, right by the convergence of three
rivers. The solemn buddha faces west, resting his immense hands upon giant knees with heavy-lidded
eyes gazing across the river. The Buddha is deeply set into a somewhat concealed 30-meter
wide niche. The Leshan Giant Buddha is said to have been
built to calm the turbulent waters especially the Dadu River which shattered boats and plagued
their occupants in years past. The enormous statue is 20 stories high. It
is stated that 100 monks could sit on one foot. Originally the Buddha was completely
covered with a grand multi-storied wooden temple pavilion which was a common practice
in the past. The pavilion was destroyed and rebuilt many times throughout the centuries.
This explains the visible beam holes and small niches on the side walls. The last temple
was destroyed during the Qing dynasty and since then the giant Buddha has remained exposed
to the elements.
The scale of the work is astonishing. The amount of stone that had to be removed from
the mountain to depict the Buddha must have been massive. The project was initiated by
a monk in 713. The work started at the mountain top and worked its way down after carving
the head. The removed stone was said to be discarded in the river. The project continued
on and off after the monk’s passing and was eventually completed on the 90-year mark.
The earliest Buddha photos were taken over 100 years ago and show the deteriorating state
of the statue. In 1914, the Frenchmen Henri D' Ollone visited this region and described
the Buddha being seated inside a niche; even though massive, the statue had suffered severe
weathering and overgrowing vegetation, also it was not artistically pleasing; it looked
like an unfinished snowman. On the other hand, he praised the elegant alcoves and beautiful
smaller buddha statues engraved on the rock walls nearby.
This Frenchman pointed out a strange fact that the Leshan Giant Buddha doesn’t look
like the traditional Chinese Buddha statues. Even today, after many rounds of restoration,
the aesthetic value of the Leshan Buddha is sub-par when compared to other magnificent
ancient Chinese Buddha statues.
There are many large stone buddha that were created a few hundred years before and from
the same era; some of them are in Leshan. They are beautifully sculpted and show outstanding
craftsmanship. Compared to these elegant life-like buddha statues, the Leshan Buddha lacks facial
structure which makes a statue vivid and aesthetically appealing. This Buddha has a flat and square
face with no brow bone or eye sockets. The eye brows, pupils and the lips are painted
to be recognizable.
Unless vandalized and robbed, most large-scale Chinese stone Buddha statues from the Tang
Dynasty remain in great shape with no vegetation. The small statues especially the ones closer
to the ground were easier for thieves to steal and vandalize. The colossal size of the Leshan
Buddha should have been a beneficial feature for its preservation. It’s not easy to gain
access to the upper portion. Leshan Buddha’s face, however, is greatly deteriorated since
it looks so different from all the other Tang Dynasty Buddha.
Here are two stone Buddha which were created before the Leshan Buddha, at a mountain about
66 miles away. They are also carved from the same red sandstone and about half the size
of Leshan Buddha. They are not nearly as famous and are often overlooked by most people. But
their craftsmanship is visibly superior and these statues didn't suffer much from weathering.
Even without maintenance, they stay vegetation free.
Then why is the Leshan Buddha always getting so much vegetation? Currently it needs constant
cleaning or the moss returns. Why does Leshan Buddha look so different? I don’t think
ancient workers put in this immense amount of labor to create a colossal-sized Buddha
just to end up with unsatisfying craftsmanship. That doesn’t make sense.
The original facial feature of Leshan Buddha must have been as impressive as other amazingly
carved statues. Did constant weather exposure destroy the sculptural details of the Buddha
over time?
Leshan is located in a basin with mild weather, plenty of rain, no gale wind and almost frost-free.
The giant Buddha was protected under a temple for centuries; even when it gets exposed it
still sits in a deep alcove which offers some protection from both sun and wind. On the
cliff side next to the Giant Buddha, there are two carved warriors in battle robes. They
are more exposed to the sun, wind and rain but no vegetation grows on them and the south
one’s face is recognizable.
Leshan Buddha is not entirely made of stone: the ears and nose were crafted from wood then
covered with clay and mortar. It was common knowledge that the ears were made of wood
as stated in a journal written in the 1100s when the temple was still covering the Buddha.
The wooden nose was a fairly recent discovery and we don’t know if it was designed that
way originally. The small hair buns are plugged in and sealed with mortar thus not original.
These facts beg the question: why didn’t the ancient workers carve the statue entirely
in stone? The head was the first thing they started and one would think that they wouldn’t
start cutting corners so early in this project. I have a theory that might explain these irregularities,
which I will come back to shortly.
We see the peeling mortar or plaster at the toes. Going through many restorations, the
Buddha accumulated multiple layers of mortar. Mortar cracks easier than stone, dirt can
gather at the cracks where vegetation can grow. Considering the fact that in the early
1900s, vegetation grew on almost the entire Buddha’s upper body, the top of the head
and even some facial parts, it is possible that the Buddha was covered mostly with mortar.
This is a very peculiar practice that is not common for stone Buddhas in ancient China.
Why is Leshan Buddha an outlier? Using mortar on stone statues would require constant maintenance
which is not required by other big true stone statues. A major point of carving statues
in stone is for their durability and longevity. Then why did the builders of Leshan Buddha
cover the stone with less durable mortar? Isn’t that strange?
When researching, I found several sites inside the Leshan Buddha tourist park, very close
to the Buddha, with interesting tool marks. The sandstone here has a hardness of 6 on
Mohs scale which is not a soft stone. This one is near the current Buddha park entrance.
The size and style are exactly the same as the ones we saw at Longyou Caves and other
ancient Chinese quarries. This fountain is even closer to the Buddha, and we can see
the same layers of diagonal tool marks as well. Actually, there are many places on Mount
Lingyun that have such markings, even on the zigzag staircase that is right on the north
side of the Buddha niche. It is claimed to have been built at the same time as the Giant
Buddha. The staircase was covered with vegetation and inaccessible before the cleanup. See these
large-scale tool marks? They are uniformed and parallel, very much like those made by
modern hard rock mining machines.
The scale of such tool marks is beyond the capacity of any hand tools. Even a hand-held
rock drill can not create marks that are parallel like we see here. I think these are clearly
advanced machine marks. It is very fortunate that some of these marks survived, partially
due to them being in a tucked in location and the slight curvature shape having created
a shelter for the markings.
This narrow and steep stone staircase was said to have been built along with the excavation
of the statue. The Buddha was carved from its head down to its toes and took 90 years
to complete in 803. Obviously, there was no advanced machinery back then that could perform
this monumental work. Then how can we explain all the machine marks in this area? Did the
stairs and other places with machine marks exist in prehistory time? Maybe Mount Lingyun
is a site that a lost civilization had worked on with advanced machinery.
Possibly that same civilization left behind massive stone blocks attached to the mountain.
Ancient Chinese could have found the site and saw its potential of being repurposed
to a giant Buddha statue to honor Maitreya, the future Buddha. Since it was built on top
of leftover stone bocks, it would have saved on the immense labor needed though at the
same time it had certain limitations. For example, perhaps the leftover stone block
didn't have sufficient material to carve out certain body areas such as the Buddha’s
ears, so some facial features were created with mortar and wooden frames and added to
the stone blocks. Since such structure was made of less durable material, it didn’t
last as long as stone. Once the superficial add-on feature wears off, we are left with
the underlying stone block, which explains the flat and blocky face we see today.
The stone block with the added mortar creation could also help explain the severity of the
weathering and the difficulty of preservation. The areas that are carved from stone, like
the neck and hands usually stay vegetation free. The upper body, however, was covered
with plants which could mean it was supplemented with mortar before. As I said earlier, when
mortar cracks and peels off, dirt and vegetation started to overtake the statue.
Is my theory far-fetched? Here is an ancient quarry in Japan with similar machine marks.
One piece of stone block was repurposed as a Buddha in 1948. I think this quarry is another
megalithic site originally worked on by a prehistory civilization with advanced machinery.
From the Roman Colosseum to the Inca temples, we see our ancestors having repurposed and
reused prior ancient structures and leftover building materials. It is a cross-cultural
practice that makes great sense given certain limitations of our forebears building and
engineering technology. Plus, I have more supporting evidence to add
to my theory which I will save for the next video. I propose the real possibility that
some well-known cultural sites might have different and even longer histories than we
are currently led to believe. We may need to reexamine existing premises when revisiting
these ancient sites. Clues surround us and can be revealed with eyes wide open. The past
is not yet set-in stone. I want to personally thank Lipsynthia who
brought to my attention the Leshan Giant Buddha. If you have any insights, please leave me
a comment. If you like my video, please give me a thumb’s up and subscribe. I have a
wide range of topics that I want to share with you. This is Curious Being, I am Tina.
Thanks for watching and see you next time.