Leshan and Mount Emei: The Giant Buddha and the Sacred Mountain

Two of the great Buddhist sites of China stand within sight of each other in the south of Sichuan. At Leshan a seated Buddha 71 metres high looks out over the meeting of three rivers. Across the plain rises Mount Emei, 3,099 metres high. UNESCO inscribed them together in 1996 as the Mount Emei Scenic Area, including the Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area.

The Giant Buddha

The figure represents Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. It is carved from the cliff of Lingyun Mountain where the Min, Qingyi and Dadu rivers join, and is often described as the tallest pre-modern stone Buddha in the world.

The project was begun in the early eighth century, under the Tang dynasty, by a monk named Hai Tong. The currents at the confluence wrecked boats, and he believed that the Buddha would calm the water. He died before the work was done. His disciples carried it on, and it was completed in 803 with the backing of the regional governor Wei Gao.

The dimensions are hard to take in from close by. The head is 14.7 metres high, with 1,021 coiled buns of hair. The shoulders are 28 metres wide and the ears seven metres long. A person can sit on a toenail.

The builders also gave thought to the weather. Hidden gutters and channels carry rainwater away, and this drainage has helped to protect the soft stone for more than 1,200 years.

Mount Emei

Emei is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, and is regarded as the place of enlightenment of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, known in Chinese as Puxian. Tradition holds that the first Buddhist temple in China was built here, in the first century. The mountain has dozens of monasteries of the Ming and Qing periods. The Baoguo Temple, at its foot, and the Wannian Temple, on its slopes, are the best known.

The Golden Summit, at 3,077 metres, has temples and a tall gilded statue of Samantabhadra. Pilgrims and visitors go up for the sunrise and for the “sea of clouds”, when the peaks stand above a white floor of mist.

The footpath to the top is long and takes several days. Most visitors go by road to the upper slopes and take a cable car to the summit. Tibetan macaques live along the paths. They are used to people and bold in pursuit of food.

For travellers

Both sites are reached from Chengdu. The Buddha at Leshan can be seen in a day; Emei needs at least one night, on the mountain or in the town at its foot, to be at the summit for sunrise. The usual order is Leshan first, then Emei.

The summit is cold in every season and often in cloud. Carry warm clothing, keep food out of sight of the monkeys and do not feed them.

In Chengdu, an early visit to the giant pandas fits the day before.