The Leshan Giant Buddha is a statue of Maitreya (弥勒) in sitting posture lies to the east of Leshan City, Sichuan Province, (face) Min River, Qingyi River, and Dadu River. In December, 1996, the Buddha (include) by the UNESCO on the list of the World Heritage Sites.
The construction of the statue began in the year 713 in the Tang Dynasty, finished in the year 803. The Buddha is 71 meters high. The 9-meter-long instep is big enough for one hundred people to sit on and the 24-meter-wide shoulder is large enough to be a basketball playground.
monk called Hai Tong is connected with the Buddha forever. At that time, wild waters brought out many boat accidents and people just put the disaster down to the presence of a water spirit. So Hai Tong decided to make a statue beside the river thinking that the Buddha would bring the water spirit control. After 20 years' begging from door to door, he finally collected enough money for the plan. When some local government (official) tried to get this amount of money, Hai Tong said that they could get his eyeballs but not the money (raise) for the Buddha. After Hai Tong (dig) out his eyeballs, they ran away in horror. The project was half done when Hai Tong passed away, and two of his disciples(弟子) continued the work. After a total of 90 years' hard work, the project was (eventual) completed.
