The world's first large stone statue of the Buddha, however, it disappeared without cause for 600 years.

The world's first large stone statue of the Buddha, however, it disappeared without cause for 600 years.

A picture of the Buddha in mengshan.

It was born in beiqi in 551, more than 1500 years old, more than 162 years before the sichuan leshan giant Buddha, it is 66 meters high, than have to blow up the west recognized "the world first Buddha" bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan is high, the time and more than 100 years old. For 600 years, the great Buddha disappeared from view.

Profile picture of mengshan Buddha.

Mount mengshan is located in mengshan, more than 20 kilometers southwest of taiyuan city, Shanxi Province. According to historical records: the grand Buddha of mengshan was built in 551 AD, which was the earliest stone carving Buddha in the open sky in China.

Mengshan Buddha looks up.

After the yuan dynasty, mengshan great Buddha mysterious "disappeared". It was not until the 1980s, more than 600 years later, that an old man named wang jian ni in taiyuan, Shanxi Province, discovered it.

Mount mengshan mountain foot.

Buddha all more than 60 meters high, has been nearly 1500 years of history, than have to blow up the west recognized "the world first Buddha" the bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan is high, the more time more than 100 years old, lower than the sichuan leshan giant Buddha, but more than 162 years before the build time, is the earliest open-air moya carved stone Buddha in China even all over the world.

See the Buddha in the distance.

In "the northern qi book", "the young master heng ji" records: "the jinyang xishan mountain for the great Buddha, a night of fuel oil, the light palace." This "palace" refers to the famous jinyang palace in history, and the ruins are located in the vicinity of the temple of Kowloon temple in jinyuan town.

See mengshan Buddha closely.

Where is jinyang xishan, the book of the northern qi is not clear. Jinyang xishan namely taiyuan xishan, the tianlongshan tianlong temple, longshan children's temple, mengshan kaihua temple all have Buddha, which is the "western mountain Buddha"?

The cave under the mountains of mengshan.

That wu zetian was designed for Buddha made a huge cassock, visible its prosperity, but with the change of dynasties, with the destruction and natural erosion of the Buddha statue at the end of a yuan beadle caving, buried in the stone under belly.

Undiscovered mengshan Buddha.

In 1983, a taiyuan man named wang jianni rediscovered the Buddha of mengshan in the census name. It was very strange to find that there was also a place called the great belly cliff.

Protect the great Buddha of mengshan.

Since 2007, taiyuan has protected and developed mengshan giant Buddha, reinforced the Buddha's body, and referred to the newly unearthed buddhist head of the northern qi, which is 12 meters high. In October 2008, mengshan Buddha opened to the public.

A satellite image of mt. Mengshan.

Step by step and so on field survey, and gradually found pot-bellied cliff is mengshan Buddha statue in the chest, Buddha head has been lost, revealing the tall chest, chest the following buried in debris, earth-rock tens of meters thick, see now the whole body is digging leak out afterwards.

Mountain Buddha scenery map.

At the top of the cliff is the ruins of an ancient building that stretches for about five hundred meters.

The mountain Buddha is being repaired.

The mountain Buddha was rediscovered, and the Buddha's head was missing, and the Buddha was buried in the earth and was badly weathered.

Panoramic view of mengshan great Buddha.

Mengshan grand Buddha and leshan giant Buddha and bamiyan buddhas are named, and according to the high relationship between them, mengshan Buddha is called the second largest stone Buddha in the world.