A MULTI-MILLION-YUAN project to shore up the country’s oldest cliff-carved Buddha will start before the end of June in North China’s Shanxi Province.

    With a 74-million-yuan (US$11.7 million) investment approved by the Ministry of Land Resources, the work will focus on consolidating mines around the Mengshan Buddha, which was once in danger of collapsing, according to Taiyuan City’s land resources bureau.

    Qiao Qinghai, a geology official with the city’s land resources bureau, said the project will increase greenery and eliminate hidden geological hazards in the Mengshan scenic area, which also will improve living conditions for local residents and help the development of tourism.

    The 1,461-year-old Buddha statue was carved into a cliff on Mengshan Mountain in the year 551, during China’s Northern and Southern Dynasties. It is believed to be 162 years older than the world’s largest sitting stone sculpture of the Buddha in Leshan, Sichuan Province.

    The Mengshan Buddha, 63 meters tall, was discovered in the 1980s, when parts of the carved statue were lost or buried in silt and rubble. Continuous mining in the area had caused geological disasters including landslides, ground collapses and fissures, leaving the giant statue in danger of collapse. It was opened to tourists in 2008 after repairs.

    A total of 211 million yuan has been invested to improve the area’s geology since 2008.

    The Mengshan Buddha is more than 20 kilometers southwest of Taiyuan, the provincial capital.

(Xinhua)