Hey everyone, welcome to World Heritage Journey.
For today's video we're at the Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area in Sichuan, central China.
The Leshan Giant Buddha is the world's largest stone statue.
One of the holiest places for Chinese Buddhists, it sits facing Mount Emei, another important
place of Buddhist worship.
The statue itself stands a colossal 71 metres high, and is carved directly out of the side
of a mountain, overlooking the confluence of three rivers.
Construction started in around 713 AD and was the brainchild of a local monk
named Hai Tong.
His hope was that erecting a large statue of Buddha would calm the dangerous waters
around the river, and when the project began to stall for lack of funds,
legend suggests that he gouged out his own eyes to prove his sincerity.
Sadly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, he died before the project was completed in 803 AD.
But what's really interesting is that so much rock was taken out of the mountain and dumped in the river that
the currents were drastically altered - so the statue really did calm the rivers down!
It's oriented to directly face Mount Emei, sacred to Chinese Buddhists, though sadly
the mountain itself wasn't visible on the misty autumn day that we visited.
It's also located at the heart of a larger Buddhist complex, full of temples, shrines,
niches and carvings.
We had a fantastic day wandering through the bamboo forests, checking out the temples and
exploring the pagodas.
The mists really gave the site an otherworldly quality, which was just fantastic.
The site is also home to several Han-dynasty cliff tombs from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
These were quite interesting as the decorations give a great insight into life from the era.
One of the tombs is also home to the oldest known depiction of Buddha in China!
Very cool.