THE restoration of an ancient Buddhist statue in Southwest China was progressing smoothly and would be completed by 2014, Chongqing cultural authorities said Wednesday.

    The Qianshou (Thousand Hands) Guanyin sculpture, the Bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, was carved about 800 years ago during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) on Baoding Mountain in Dazu County in the municipality of Chongqing.

    The “Goddess of Mercy” has 1,007 arms, with one eye carved in each palm. The cave where the goddess lies is 7.7 meters high and 12.5 meters wide.

    Over the centuries, the color has faded, and some of the gold leaf has peeled off. Cracks have appeared and in 2007, part of one of the statue’s many fingers fell off.

    The restoration work, China’s No.1 rock heritage preservation project, started in April and was expected to cost 40 million yuan (US$ 6.35 million), according to an official with the city’s culture, radio and TV bureau.

    More than 50,000 individual rock carvings are in the Dazu grottoes, dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907). They were listed as a major UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. (Xinhua)