Sichuan · A Buddha Built to Fix a River
Leshan Giant Buddha (乐山大佛)
Seventy-one metres of Tang dynasty engineering, cut into a river cliff over ninety years to calm the water at a confluence that kept sinking boats. The rubble went into the river, and the currents changed.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A seated Maitreya cut into the cliff at the meeting of three rivers, with a hidden drainage system built into it |
|---|---|
| Where | Leshan, Sichuan, where the Min, Dadu and Qingyi rivers meet, about 40 km from Mount Emei |
| When | Begun in 713 by the monk Hai Tong and finished in 803, ninety years later |
| Size | The figures usually given are 71 m tall, shoulders 28 m across, and ears about 7 m |
| Why | To calm the water at the confluence, where boats were regularly wrecked |
| Listed | UNESCO inscribed it in 1996 as a single site with Mount Emei |
| Two ways to see it | The staircase beside the figure, which has the queue, or a boat from the river, which has the view |
| Time needed | Two to three hours with the staircase. Under an hour by boat |
Why Go
Engineering First, Devotion Second
1. It was a river project
Three rivers meet at Leshan and the water at the junction was violent enough to sink boats regularly. A monk called Hai Tong began the carving in 713 with the stated purpose of calming it, and the traditional account has him blinding himself to prove he would not let officials take the funds raised for the work.
What is more interesting is that it worked, and for a physical reason rather than a devotional one. Ninety years of cutting produced an enormous quantity of rubble, and the rubble went into the river below. That changed the bed and slowed the currents at the confluence, which is the kind of outcome that gets recorded because boatmen noticed it.
2. The reason it is still there
Red sandstone is soft and this one sits in one of the wettest parts of China, which should have destroyed it centuries ago. It survives because a drainage system is built into the figure and concealed by it: gutters run through the coiled hair, channels pass behind the ears and down the back, and the folds of the robe carry water off the body rather than into it.
None of it is visible from the viewing platforms and almost no English-language material mentions it, which is a shame, because it changes what you are looking at. The head is not decorated with over a thousand stone curls for effect. The curls are the top of a drain.
The catch. The staircase down beside the figure is a single narrow file cut into the cliff, and in season the queue for it runs to two hours or more with no shade and no way to turn back once you are on it. Many people find the wait longer than the visit. A boat from the river gives the whole figure at once in half an hour and no queue, and the honest answer is that the boat is the better view and the stairs are the better experience.
Orientation
Stairs or Boat, and You Can Do Both
Inside the park the route runs along the top of the cliff to the head, which is level with the path, then down the Nine-Bend staircase beside the body to the feet, then out along the river. It is the whole figure at close range, and it is a one-way system with a long queue at the top of the stairs.
The boats leave from the dock below and take about thirty minutes, holding position in front of the figure long enough for photographs. They are a separate ticket and do not enter the park. Doing the boat first and then deciding whether the staircase queue is worth it is the sensible order.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Go at opening or take the boat
The staircase queue builds through the morning and does not clear. First entry or a boat are the two ways to avoid losing two hours.
The stairs are narrow and one way
Once you start down there is no turning back and nowhere to sit. Anyone unsteady on steep steps should stay on the top path and take the boat instead.
It is often scaffolded
Conservation work on a soft stone figure in a wet climate is more or less continuous. Check before you build a day around the photograph.
Pair it with Emei by train
Twenty minutes on the fast line, and the two are one UNESCO listing. Doing the Buddha in the morning and travelling on in the afternoon works well.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| September to November | Drier, clearer, and the queues shorter than in summer | The first week of October fills the staircase completely |
| March to May | Green, warm and comfortable, with the rivers still low enough for easy boat runs | Sichuan haze can sit over the confluence for days |
| June to August | Long opening hours and full rivers | Hot, humid and the busiest season. The staircase has no shade |
| December to February | The fewest people of the year and the shortest waits | Grey and damp, and boat services can be reduced |
Context
Tang Confidence, and What Came After
The eighth century was the high point of Tang power and the period when Buddhism in China had the money and the confidence for projects on this scale. Work began here within a few years of the height of the dynasty, and the figure is a Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, which was the form most associated with imperial patronage at the time.
Ninety years is a long build and the political situation changed underneath it. The An Lushan rebellion broke out in 755, halfway through, and the Tang never fully recovered; the completion in 803 happened in a very different empire from the one that started the work. Funding stopped and restarted more than once, which the records reflect.
Afterwards the figure was sheltered by a multi-storey timber pavilion built over it, which burned at the end of the Yuan and was never replaced. Since then it has been exposed, which is why the drainage built into it matters so much and why conservation here is a continuous rather than an occasional activity.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 40 km west
Mount Emei (峨眉山)
The sacred mountain listed by UNESCO as part of the same site, twenty minutes away on the fast train.
Carvings · 250 km east
Dazu Rock Carvings (大足石刻)
Song dynasty cliff carvings near Chongqing, several centuries later and about ordinary people rather than dynastic scale.
Spot · 190 km north
Mount Qingcheng and Dujiangyan (青城山－都江堰)
The Warring States irrigation works that made the Sichuan basin farmable, which is the other great water project in this province.
Where to Base
Chengdu (成都)
Leshan is about an hour from Chengdu on the fast train and twenty minutes from Emeishan station, which is why almost everyone does the two together. The park is a short taxi ride from Leshan station.
As a day trip from Chengdu it is comfortable. As part of a two-day loop with Emei it is better, because it lets you take the boat in the morning light rather than at midday.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · 2 hr
The staircase
The top path to the head, then the Nine-Bend stairs down the side of the figure to the feet.
Boat · 30 min
From the river
The whole figure seen at once from the water, which is the view it was designed to be seen from.
Guided · 2 days
Leshan and Emei
The Buddha by boat and stairs, then the mountain, which is how the listing pairs them.
Worth half a day, and worth doing the boat whether or not you queue for the stairs. Go at opening if you want both, look for the channels behind the ears when you are level with the head, and remember the thing was built to change a river rather than to be photographed. Then take the twenty-minute train to Emei.
Plan the Buddha and the Mountain
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: the fast train from Chengdu, the boat in the morning light, the staircase before the queue builds, and on to Emei the same afternoon.