Hi guys, in my previous video, I discussed my hypothesis that the Leshan Giant Buddha
might have been created from a pre-existing site with leftover stone blocks and stairs. I found
distinct machine marks that cannot be created by hand tools. Instead of the traditional belief
that this statue was carved from a mountainside by manual labor, I think it was built on the residual
work of a previous advanced civilization, which possessed sophisticated machinery.
Leshan Buddha was claimed to be completed 1,200 years ago.
Compared to other large-scale stone Buddha that were carved a few hundred years before,
the Leshan Buddha shows almost no facial features with substantial damage and vegetation growth,
which is very rare on true stone sculptures. The following side-by-side comparison photos
were taken around the same time in the early 1900s. Here we see older stone statues in much
better condition than Leshan Buddha, even though they suffered significant thievery and vandalism.
These two big statues are older than Leshan Buddha and located within the
same region as well as made from similar red sandstone. There are considerable
differences in their craftsmanship and degree of weathering. Why is that?
I believe the original facial features of Leshan Buddha would have been as impressive
as other amazingly carved statues. We already know that the Buddha’s ears are made of wooden frames
and mortar and the nose was possibly built the same way. It’s conceivable that the facial
features were originally not carved from stone, but made of wooden frames covered with mortar
added to the existing stone base. Since mortar is less durable and cracks easier, dirt can
accumulate within the cracks and peelings where vegetation would grow. Unlike natural sandstone,
mortar is not porous and forms an almost impermeable layer causing drainage problems
within the Buddha’s body. This particular statue suffers from serious weathering, plant-caused
erosion and some poorly performed restoration. The original wood and mortar facial features
probably faded away or fell off a long time ago. Now we are left with what was underneath,
the original sandstone block which ancient workers inherited from a previous civilization.
That sandstone can probably explain the blocky and flat faced Buddha we see today.
In my last video, I showed you the advanced machine marks found at multiple sites near
the Buddha that lead me to question the origin of this statue. But there is more.
Besides the zigzag staircase at the northern side of the Buddha, there is another serpent-shaped
staircase on a cliff on Mount Lingyun on the southern side of the giant Buddha. This is
part of a pathway leading to the bottom of the Buddha through a tunnel. This path is said to have
been constructed in 1984 for tourists. However I couldn’t find any more information about it.
So how was this path designed or constructed, and who was involved in its construction?
This path is intriguing because it shows the same distinct machine marks at the staircase
and on parts of the tunnel. Were these machine marks caused by the work from 1984? I doubt
it. Possibly the tunnel, staircase and even the horizontal path all existed prior. I think the
1984 project was more of a restoration intended to repair and reconstruct. Please hear me out.
There are several reasons for my restoration hypothesis. First, the tunnel goes through
the lower portion of the mountain and ends up at the left foot of the Buddha. This would be
considered a very bold endeavor if done in the 1980s. 40 years ago the giant Buddha was already
world-famous and the government was determined to restore and preserve this historical site.
I don’t think digging a tunnel right by the invaluable 1,200-year old statue in
order to provide an alternative path for tourists would be approved by the preservation committee;
unless the path was already there. From an old photo taken 3 years before the pathway
construction, it already shows the ending point of the path by the Buddha’s left foot. Second,
even though current machinery can create similar markings as we see at the tunnel and staircase,
I don’t think these machines were accessible in the early 1980s in China. 1984 is only six
years into the Chinese economic reform with most industries still in their elementary stage. Also,
we see how narrow the tunnel and the staircase are. I wonder if even with today’s machinery
whether it is possible to excavate them. The modern hard rock mining machines that can make
such marks are pretty big, but the tunnel is narrow and the staircase is on a cliff.
Where can we place the machine to do such a defined excavation? Third, I found some old
photos and footage, which seems to reveal some kind of path and staircase pre-existing 1984.
This one was taken in the 1930s. We can see an outline that suggests the serpent-shape staircase.
Here are some photos taken before the installation of the horizontal pathway.
Compared to today’s photos, we can locate the horizontal path with this arched niche. Zooming
in, we can see a faint trace of the staircase and horizontal path. In this blurry 1970’s footage,
we almost see the dented path on the cliff and serpent-shaped staircase. I imagine that
without regular maintenance, the staircase over time accumulated significant dirt,
debris and vegetation (like a house gutter) thus making it very hard to distinguish the
stair from its surroundings. I think it’s more likely that the staircase and tunnel
predate the giant Buddha; and in 1984 the work solely consisted of cleaning and restoring
both the tunnel and staircase as well as reinstalling the horizontal pathway.
So assuming the giant Buddha was created on a preexisting site with stone stairs, then why
aren’t there any historical records of this? In order to answer this question, I searched online.
I found two Tang dynasty poems predating the completion of the giant Buddha. Two poets wrote
about their separate trips to visit the Lingyun temple, which is the one on the mountain top right
by the Buddha’s head. Lingyun temple was built 200 years before the Buddha, which was considered an
additional part of the temple. One poet, Censhen, described himself taking great effort climbing up
the cliff and feeling like he was hanging in midair in order to visit the temple on
the mountain top. The poet mentioned two sites on Mount Lingyun that are closed to the temple,
but he didn’t mention the Buddha even though based on the poem’s written time the Buddha
would have already been carved for some years. Which cliff staircase did the poet climb up:
the zigzag one by the Buddha or the serpent-shaped one on the other side of the mountain? I don’t
think it was the one right by the Buddha or the poet would have mentioned the Buddha, right?
So it’s probable this poet climbed up the serpent-shape staircase which indeed can
be described as hanging in midair because it’s right on the cliff side overlooking the river.
Decades later, a poet named Simashu mentioned visiting the temple by climbing up steep
stone stairs that made people feel like they were taking a path that belonged to birds.
He then described how the golden body of the giant Buddha opens up the green cliffs
and there were thousands of niches with candles and incense. I believe this poem may have been
written when the Buddha statue was more complete and the poet docked his boat and climbed up the
stone stairs by the Buddha’s feet. These poems indicate that at least
one of the two cliff-side staircases was there before the completion of the Buddha.
This likely changes the narrative of the Buddha’s creation being carved from the mountain.
The old photos show there was a path from the Buddha’s feet to the river and a possible
dock. Let’s assume there was no niche or zigzag staircase before the Buddha project 1,200 years
ago. The work started from the mountaintop going down. Ancient workers created the zigzag stair
so they could have a shortcut to climb up to the work site. It seems reasonable. However, how and
why would the workers carve the staircase on the north side of the niche when there was no niche?
It would make more sense to have the stair carved on the cliff side along the river.
I think the location of the zigzag stair is proof that there was a preexisting niche.
This supports my hypothesis that the giant Buddha was created on top of some existing worked-on site
instead of carved from the complete mountain. Maybe it was a prehistory ruin or quarry.
Many parts of the Buddha were sculpted with mortar covering the base stone blocks,
which could explain why it was so difficult to maintain and restore,
unlike other big stone sculptures. Leshan Buddha was not a true stone sculpture from the beginning.
The official inauguration for the completion of the Leshan Buddha
was from an official Weigao who funded the last portion of the project,
and it states in old Chinese: “at this mountain which has the turbulent current and steep cliffs,
it is said that the rock can be changed and drop into the river to calm it. If (we) open up/ widen
the kind appearance, (with) the fine contour, (we) can achieve the good cause and gather
all the forces needed. Because of (our) belief of this future cause, the statue of Maitreya,
(we) work tirelessly for countless hours”. To me it reads like there were some contours
already onsite and the ancient people planned to utilize the existing landform to build a Buddha.
If we accept the possibility that the zigzag staircase, the tunnel, the serpent-shaped stairs,
and other sites on Mount Lingyun were created with unknown advanced machinery by a prehistory
civilization, then what was this civilization originally working on?
There is a lot more to this mystery. Besides the sites with machine marks I just mentioned,
there are also many stone tombs at Mount Lingyun, which have large,
uniformed machine marks dated about 1,800 years old based on funereal offerings. Actually
there are tens of thousands of stone caves in Leshan, distributed along the major rivers and
on the cliffs; there is even one near the Buddha which sometimes gets submerged underwater.
Were these ancient tombs, residences or something else? I plan to do a future video on these
intriguing caves. 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.