There are giant Bud­dhas, and then there are giant Bud­dhas. The Bud­dha at Leshan is an immense 71 meters (233 ft) tall. Carved out of the sand­stone cliffs in Sichuan province, Chi­na, the Bud­dha is said to be the largest pre-mod­­ern stat­ue and the biggest stone Bud­dha in the world.Work began on carv­ing the stat­ue, which over­looks the con­flu­ence of three rivers, in the eighth cen­tu­ry. The stat­ue remains rel­a­tive­ly inac­ces­si­ble due to the ter­rain, and this has helped to pre­serve the Buddha.The con­struc­tion was start­ed by a monk named Haitong, who hoped that it would calm the tur­bu­lent waters where the three rivers met. When the con­struc­tion was threat­ened by local offi­cials, Haitong is said to have gouged out his own eyes to demon­strate his piety and sin­cer­i­ty. He was soon grant­ed per­mis­sion to con­tin­ue, pos­si­bly because they were wor­ried about what else he would cut off if they refused.Unfortunately, Haitong did not live to see the com­ple­tion of the stat­ue, but he would have been pleased to know that the con­struc­tion of the Bud­dha caused a buildup of debris in the riv­er, which altered its course and did indeed calm the waters at the point where the Buddha’s eyes gaze.[3]Of course, even if he had lived to see it, he wouldn’t have been able to actu­al­ly see it, so per­haps it was just as well.