Landmark Asia
Leshan Giant Buddha
The Leshan Giant Buddha is a giant stone statue carved right out of a cliff in China. It is 71 meters tall! It sits beside the place where three rivers meet.
The Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan, China, is a seated statue carved out of a cliff face. Work began in the early 700s and took ninety years. At 71 meters tall, it faces the meeting point of three rivers, and UNESCO calls it the tallest Buddha sculpture in the world. It became part of a World Heritage Site in 1996.
Carved out of the hillside of Xiluo Peak on Mount Lingyun from the early 8th century, in work ICOMOS says took ninety years, the Leshan Giant Buddha rises 71 m, its body alone 59.96 m. It faces the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers, is described by UNESCO as the tallest Buddha sculpture in the world, and is part of the Mount Emei World Heritage Site (1996).
Photo: 王计, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover the Leshan Giant Buddha
This giant statue is in Sichuan, a part of China.
Workers did not build it from blocks. They carved it out of a whole cliff! It shows the Buddha sitting down.
The Leshan Giant Buddha is a giant seated statue carved straight out of a cliff on Mount Lingyun, across the river from the city of Leshan in Sichuan, China. It shows the Buddha, the teacher whose ideas began the religion of Buddhism.
The statue looks out over the place where three rivers meet: the Minjiang, the Dadu and the Qingyi. UNESCO calls it the tallest Buddha sculpture in the world.
The statue sits on Xiluo Peak of Mount Lingyun, at the junction of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers, across the river from the historic city of Leshan. ICOMOS gives its height as 71 m overall and its body as 59.96 m, and, like UNESCO, calls it the largest statue of the Buddha in the world.
It belongs to the World Heritage Site 'Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area', inscribed in 1996 under criteria (iv), (vi) and (x). The Leshan part is a separate area of 17.88 ha, while the Mount Emei area covers 15,400 ha.
- Where
- Across the river from Leshan, Sichuan, China
- Height
- 71 m (body 59.96 m)
- Carved
- from the early 8th century, over ninety years
- World Heritage
- with Mount Emei, inscribed 1996
Ninety years of carving
People started carving the statue more than 1,200 years ago.
It was such a big job that it took ninety years to finish!
Work on carving the statue out of the mountainside began early in the 700s, during China's Tang dynasty. ICOMOS says it was not finished for ninety years.
An imperial envoy named Wei Ben wrote an account of how the statue was made, at the time it was made. ICOMOS reported that his account survives on an inscribed tablet.
ICOMOS's evaluation for the 1996 listing records that carving began in the early 8th century and was not completed for ninety years, and that stylistically the statue stands in the highest tradition of the Tang dynasty (618–907). A contemporary account of its creation by the imperial envoy Wei Ben, it noted, is preserved as an inscribed tablet.
The statue is part of a wider landscape of temples and towers. UNESCO notes that the first Buddhist temple in China was built on the summit of Mount Emei in the 1st century CE.
A statue cut from a cliff
The statue is carved from the red rock of the cliff.
Its head has rows of little round curls, and its ears are very long.
The statue was not put together from stones. It was cut from the living rock of the hillside, so the cliff and the statue are one piece.
In the photo you can see its face, its long ears and its head covered with rows of small round curls. Plants and moss grow on its shoulders and on the cliff around it.
Unlike a building, the statue was cut from the hillside itself: UNESCO says it was 'carved out of a hillside'. Its 71 m total height includes the head; the body alone measures 59.96 m, ICOMOS reports.
In the photograph the carved head shows rows of rounded curls, long ear lobes, half-closed eyes and a calm mouth. Moss, ferns and shrubs grow on the shoulders and on the reddish cliff walls that frame the figure, and a walkway runs along the top of the cliff.
Temples, a tower and three rivers
On Lingbao Peak stands a tall brick tower with 13 floors.
An old temple sits against the hillside too.
The hills around the statue hold other old buildings. The Lingbao Pagoda, a brick tower from the 800s, is 38 meters tall with 13 stories. The Lingyun Temple, also called the Giant Buddha Temple, stands against the hillside; its present building dates from the early Qing dynasty, which began in 1644.
On Mount Wuyou, an official named Li Bing built the Lidui irrigation system in the 3rd century.
ICOMOS lists the other monuments of the Leshan scenic area: the 9th-century Lingbao (or Lingyin) Pagoda, 38 m high in brick with thirteen stories; the Lingyun or Dafo (Giant Buddha) Temple, first built in the 7th century and in its present form from the early Qing dynasty; the Wuyou Temple on Mount Wuyou; and the 11th-century Dongpo Tower, named after a poet who praised Mount Emei.
Mount Wuyou is also known for the Lidui irrigation system, built in the 3rd century by the imperial official Li Bing.
- Lingbao Pagoda
- 9th century, brick, 38 m, 13 stories
- Rivers
- Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi
- Leshan area
- 17.88 ha
Face to face with the statue
In the photo, the statue's giant face looks out from the green cliff.
Look at the top: tiny people stand along the cliff edge. They show how big the statue is!
The photo was taken on 5 August 2016. It shows the statue's head and upper body, with its face turned toward the river, green plants on the cliffs and a sliver of river water on the right.
Along the top of the cliff, a crowd of visitors stands at a railing. Next to them, the statue's head looks enormous.
The photograph (5 August 2016) looks along the cliff at the head and torso, with river water just visible at the far right and the red cliff face carved back in steps beside the figure. Visitors line a railing at the top of the cliff, giving a sense of the statue's scale.
IUCN's evaluation of the site noted that the number of tourists and pilgrims was the main threat to Mount Emei, and UNESCO's statement describes a Management Committee for the Mount Emei-Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area that protects and manages the property.
Amazing facts
-
Carving the giant statue took ninety years!
Work on the statue began in the early 700s and was not finished for ninety years.
ICOMOS records that carving began in the early 8th century and was not completed for ninety years.
-
A man who lived when the statue was made wrote about it, and his words still survive on a tablet.
An imperial envoy, Wei Ben, wrote an account of how the statue was made at the time, and it survives on an inscribed tablet.
A contemporary account of the statue's creation by the imperial envoy Wei Ben is preserved as an inscribed tablet.
-
The statue's body alone is almost 60 meters tall.
The whole statue is 71 meters tall, and its body alone measures 59.96 meters.
ICOMOS gives 71 m overall and 59.96 m for the body.
-
Long ago, an official built a water system for farms in the same area.
On Mount Wuyou, in the same scenic area, an official named Li Bing built the Lidui irrigation system in the 3rd century.
Mount Wuyou is notable for the Lidui irrigation system, constructed in the 3rd century by Li Bing, the imperial official for the region.
Words to know
- sculpture
- a work of art carved or shaped in stone, metal or other materials
- carve
- to cut a shape out of stone or wood
- cliff
- a steep wall of rock
- confluence
- the place where two or more rivers flow together
- dynasty
- a family of rulers who govern one after another
- pagoda
- a tower with many stories, each with its own roof
Discovery challenge
-
How was the giant statue made?
How was the Leshan Giant Buddha made?
What kind of sculpture is the Leshan Giant Buddha?
- Carved out of a cliff
- Built from bricks
- Cast in bronze
Show the answer
Carved out of a cliff
It was carved out of a cliff!
It was carved straight out of the hillside.
A rock-cut statue, carved out of the hillside of Xiluo Peak.
-
How tall is the statue?
How tall is the Leshan Giant Buddha?
What is the statue's overall height, according to UNESCO and ICOMOS?
- 71 meters
- 7 meters
- 710 meters
Show the answer
71 meters
71 meters!
71 meters, with a body of 59.96 meters.
71 m overall; the body 59.96 m.
-
How many rivers meet below the statue?
How many rivers meet in front of the statue?
Which three rivers join at the foot of the statue?
- Three
- One
- Ten
Show the answer
Three
Three rivers!
Three: the Minjiang, the Dadu and the Qingyi.
The Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi.
-
How long did the carving take?
How many years did it take to carve the statue?
How long after the early 8th-century start was the carving completed?
- Ninety years
- Nine days
- Nine hundred years
Show the answer
Ninety years
Ninety years!
Ninety years, from the early 700s.
Ninety years.
-
In which country is the giant statue?
In which Chinese province is the Leshan Giant Buddha?
In which province are Mount Emei and the Leshan Giant Buddha?
- Sichuan, China
- Kyoto, Japan
- Bali, Indonesia
Show the answer
Sichuan, China
China!
Sichuan, in China.
Sichuan Province.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Leshan in Sichuan, China, where three rivers meet, and describe the giant rock-cut statue.
- Explain the difference between carving a sculpture from rock and building one from blocks.
- Use the people in a photo to estimate the size of a very large object.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- The carving took ninety years. What projects take longer than one person's working life, and how do people keep them going?
- Plants grow on the statue and the cliff. How might plants and weather change a stone carving over time?
- Many visitors come to see the statue. How can a place welcome visitors and still protect what they come to see?
Try at home or in class
- Carve a small face into a bar of soap or a block of clay with a spoon or a plastic knife, removing material bit by bit instead of adding it.
- Measure a classmate's height, then work out how many classmates stacked up would reach 71 meters.
Key vocabulary: sculpture, carve, cliff, confluence, dynasty, pagoda
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area (World Heritage List) , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Advisory Body Evaluations: Mount Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha (No 779, ICOMOS and IUCN) , ICOMOS and IUCN, via UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- File:Leshan Giant Buddha, 20161102.jpg , Wikimedia Commons
- UNESCO World Heritage List , UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Linked as a reference; site facts come from Wikidata)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.