Leshan Giant Buddha

The Leshan Giant Buddha is a huge stone statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved into a cliff face in Sichuan province, China, at the meeting point of three rivers. It was begun by the monk Haitong, who hoped that the Buddha would calm the turbulent waters that endangered boats, and after his death it was continued by others and completed several decades later. It is about seventy metres high and is the tallest pre-modern stone Buddha in the world. The statue has a drainage system hidden in its body that protects it from weathering. Together with nearby Mount Emei, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in the 1990s.

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