China: Giant Buddha of Leshan 乐山大佛
Leshan Giant Buddha Head View
Continuing on, from the Leshan Buddha Park trail, we are now headed to the actual site of Giant Buddha. The Giant Buddha was carved beside the red sandstones of Mount Lingyun at the eastern part of Leshan City in Sichuan facing the Dadu river. It is still part of China’s Mount Emei Scenic Area and Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Leshan Giant Buddha Profile
Before entering the viewing area, there is a RMB 40 entrance fee. You may opt to pay this at the gate entrance and if you haven’t, you can pay there as well. Off to the right, after the entrance, passing by a few flight of stairs, an old teahouse restaurant a small fountain and a temple, you’ll finally find yourself face to face with Leshan’s Giant Buddha Profile with a heavy-lidded eyes facing the river and the city.
Leshan Giant Buddha MId View
The sight of this huge Maitreya Buddha sitting on the side of mountain is really spectacular. This statue, standing at 71 meters (233 feet) is the tallest stone Buddha Statue in the World. Even the individual curl of his hair is like a yard long. Taking my GPS reading from the level of his head, I got the following:
Leshan Giant Buddha Head, China
City: Leshan
Latitude: 29.5468 N
Longitude: 103.7693 E
Position Accuracy: 25.26m
Altitude: 385.5 m
Alt Accuracy: 36m
Leshan Giant Buddha Feet
There’s an interesting bit of history on how this was built. The idea of building this Buddha came from a Chinese Monk Haitong who believed that a Buddha would calm the turbulent river waters which has caused a lot problems from shipping vessels. The monk was said to have gouged out his own eyes to convince the authorities of his deep sincerity to continue with the project when he learned that the funding for the project was jeopardized.
Leshan Giant Buddha Cliff Trail
Fortunately for the monk, construction on the Giant Buddha began in 713 AD and took 90 years to be finished by his disciples. And due to the excessive amount of stones removed from the mountain cliffs that were deposited below the river, the waters indeed calmed down. Making the confluence of the rivers a safer place for passing vessels.
Leshan Giant Buddha Cliff Trail
We decided to climb down the steep cliff stairs. It’s a good thing they placed some rails there as one could easily suffer from vertigo going down its narrow path. I also noticed that the cliff sides as well had some interesting sculptures and reliefs to compliment the Giant Buddha as well.
Leshan Giant Buddha Worm View
At the foot by the river, you’ll certainly see how towering this statue is, I actually felt like an ant down his feet. There were some signs of degradation from the statue as well. Sadly, pollution had smeared its nose literally, good thing the city enforced that factories there be closed down and rehabilitation of the site done regularly.
I feel like an ant under his feet
From the foot of the Giant Buddha, you can see the city skyline of Leshan. Also across the river are dots of people who are admiring the Giant Buddha from afar. Actually, from that point, you could see some of the sculptures at the side of the mountain you won’t see when you are at the actual site itself.
Leshan City
After taking pictures and admiring the site a bit, we moved on since it was getting late in the afternoon. There’s this cliff side trail on the other direction from the trail going down the cliff. The pathway is also very scenic as you can see some limestones and cliff side views of the mountain.
Leshan Giant Buddha Exit Trail
There are actually some other sight seeing spots there like the Lingyun Temple which we didn’t manage to visit since we were a bit pressed for time. We retraced back to the same trail going there and finally arrived at the etrance gates.
Leshan Giant Buddha Gazebo Stop
There, we were offered a Van for a ride to Emei Shan City where our next stop will be. We waited for a while if there were other passengers who will join us in the van. Then we moved on towards the south gate of the park to check if there were other passengers.
Leshan Buddha Park South Exit Bridge
At the south gate we found this very nice looking bridge that my friend was actually looking for. We got lucky we found it in this part. There were no other passengers there so we had the mini van to ourselves for RMB 20 each. I think the ride took about an hour. I didn’t notice much as I was dead tired and was close to drifting to sleep at the back while they were talking about China Politics.
Tags: Buddha, China, Dadu, Dafo, Giant Buddha, GPS Data, Haitong, Leshan, Maitreya Buddha, Mt Lingyun, Sichuan, UNESCO, 乐山大佛
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Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 4:59 pm 
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April 18th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
the wolf felt like an ant under buddha’s feet, that sounds very poetic to me, bai. love the feet shot. it gives me an idea of how humongous the statue really is.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:05 am
this is a terrific post. imagine all the work to create this mammoth buddha. some trip it is ferdz. were there a lot of foreign visitors to this place?
April 19th, 2008 at 1:43 am
the first shot is stunning ferdz. galing talaga. the second photo shows a part of the city buildings which tells me that though this is a forested area it’s not far from the city.
a balance of nature, culture and progress. the story of how it was made is very onteresting.
and 385.5meters is really high making it a GIANT buddha.
worthy nga talaga yung cheap trip na ito.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:46 am
That is ONE BIG BUDDHA.
Oh, I passed by MOA today and there was a Happy Birthday Buddha exhibit. So Happy Birthday!
April 19th, 2008 at 11:42 am
What a sight. I guess that monk didn’t gouge out his own eyes for nothing.
Your friends were talking about Chinese politics in China? All words of praise, I’m sure.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Amazing!! I never heard about this Giant Buddha in China, ang alam ko lang yun great wall. Hehehe
April 19th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
napansin ko din na sa di kalayuan ay may city. you got to admire the chinese for being able to preserve such heritage. kung sa atin yan nabalahura na yan.
April 19th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
ayos ah! another interesting feature from you… love the “i-was-there” pic you took… hehehe
April 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
ahhh, great adventure! Haitong should be very proud that his (wild) idea then is an amazing visual feast today. i like the idea of going up the cliff stairs, though im sure i’ll sweat nonstop even before reaching the top. haha.
April 19th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
from the time I saw your site, I always visit it and check for new entries. I enjoy looking at your shoots, galing! you’ve got a brilliant eyes on capturing scenes. Yun ang hinahanap ko sa isang picture - may feelings. And aside from that I learn a lot of new things! I envy you…sana may chance din akong makapag travel kahit saan. By the way, I love your shot dun sa exit trail from the Giant Buddha, the rays of the sun is just right to create some shadows behind the trail and I love the reflections of the small island at the background. Two thumbs up!
April 19th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
This giant Buddha must be included in the 7 wonders of the world…imagine how dangerous it was to make this Buddha and Im sure it took years before it was practically completed.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:33 am
I have seen this Buddha somewhere before; I think it was a film location (if I am not mistaken) for the movie called Fung Wan which means Wind and Cloud in Cantonese. It is an ancient martial art film adapted from a Chinese comic.
LD
April 20th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Ferdz, this must be very impressive up close! Thank you for sharing this with us. How long did you stay in China?
April 20th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
para syang kalaban ng X-men, yung giant robot, ganyan din pose hehe
April 21st, 2008 at 9:10 am
Wow! That is REALLY an impressive statue!
Amazing how they were able to carve this out . What a work!
April 21st, 2008 at 12:28 pm
imagine if this humongous buddha started moving, then all the “ants” will be crushed. but then again, that’s me and my wild imagination. i love how you chose the angles to capture the size of buddha against those people visiting it. it’s funny how huge structures always remind us to (always) look up and gawk! parang magkaka-stiff neck ata ako dito matapos ang ilang shots.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Amazing trip Ferdz. That Buddha is huge.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Such gigantic structure. Only shows how humans could achieve even the next to impossible, as long as there’s great will and determination.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
[...] China: Giant Buddha of Leshan 乐山大佛 [...]
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:14 pm
@ lagalog: Hahaha! yeah! I though the picture would somehow show the scale.
@ Photocache: Not much. I think I only saw 2 groups of 3 European/ American foreigners. Most of them are still local Chinese.
@ Dong Ho: Thanks! And I’m still on the 2nd day. Watch out for more.
@ Cedsaid: Hehe. Didn’t know there was such a day.
@ Wil: About the politics. Hmm. I think not all, but they can’t do anything much about their situation.
@ Ethyl Alcohol: Yeah! Me too. There’s more to China pala than that.
@ iRonnie: Yeah. Actually meron na ring degradation sa site, but the Chinese quickly acted up to restore these.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
@ Lino: Haha! Salamat.
@ Barrycade: Haha! I never bothered going up that way again. We went on the other exit.
@ Vanessa: Thank you very much Vanessa. Nakakataba ng puso. hehe. Seriously, comments like these keeps me blogging. Nice to know people learn a bit or two from what I write. Visit again please!
@ Eric: It actually took 90 years to finish this.
@ Kyels: Really? That’s cool! The place indeed is a nice movie setting.
@ Shoshana: Yeah it’s better in actual sight. I stayed there for 11 days.
@ Tutubi: para bang mga sentinel. hehe
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
@ Sidney: I can only imagine the work they did for 90 years.
@ Rayts: Haha! Wild talaga imagination mo. I imagine being a pancake uder his feet or like a sticky gum if ever I get splattered by his feet. Buti nga di ako na stiff neck kakatingala.
@ Lawstude: Thanks! Yes indeed
@ Major Tom: So true. Haitong and his disciples are a perfect example of that
September 11th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
That is mt hometown! great, i am very happy you love it. welcome to LeShan hehe