Maitreya Bodhisattva statue on Ba Den mountain

In the Spring of Giap Thin, when coming to Ba Den Mountain (Tay Ninh) for a pilgrimage to pray for peace, visitors will be amazed by the masterpiece of the world's largest Maitreya Bodhisattva statue on the mountain top. Behind it is an extremely elaborate creation process that not everyone can imagine.

Accurate to the… centimeter

The Maitreya statue was created in a way never seen before in Vietnam: assembling 6,688 natural sandstones in a step-like pattern. To create a work of art, each sandstone was carefully selected, checked for color, grain and exact size, then sculpted according to the design and stacked on top of each other in 54 layers.

The statue of Bodhisattva Maitreya is located at an altitude of over 900m on the top of Ba Den mountain.

In Vietnam, this is the first time sandstone has been used to build a Buddha statue. Sandstone is made from sand grains, including silica, a part of limestone. When crafting, the craftsman must grasp the lines that need to be cut off and the lines that need to be kept. Because the statue is shaped like a ladder, it is not as smooth as other statues, so when processing the lines must be extremely consistent.

According to the representative of the design unit of the Maitreya Bodhisattva statue, the material chosen to create the statue must have the meaning of longevity. And green sandstone was chosen, even though the cost is very high and much more difficult to construct than simple materials such as concrete Buddha statues in many other localities.

"The creation process is very elaborate, but the construction process is the real challenge. Our architects and engineers had to learn and apply the world's leading modern BIM construction modeling technology to implement the construction plan. All structural items and stone slabs were 3D modeled, then carefully marked in order and precisely crafted before being assembled into a complete block", Mr. Pham Thanh Quang, Design Management Board - Sun Group Corporation shared.

The process of making statues is extremely complicated in the harsh weather conditions of the highlands.

As the person directly constructing the Maitreya Bodhisattva statue, Mr. Bui Nhat Thi, Head of Design Coordination Department - Tay Ninh Project Management Board, said that among the 6,688 sandstone stones, no stone is the same, and any stone that is even 1 centimeter off will be cut and re-sculpted. He added that the most complex positions of the Buddha statue are the hands, feet, nose, chin, mouth, and rosary, requiring meticulous and elaborate stone crafting and assembling to ensure both the technicality, aesthetics, and soul of the Buddha statue. In particular, due to the construction on a high mountain top, the weather conditions are very harsh, with frequent strong winds and dense fog, making each stage of the construction and fabrication process extremely complicated.

"We used robots to construct and install each position to reduce human effort, but this is truly a challenging project in terms of both difficulty and sophistication, rare in the world," said Mr. Thi.

This masterpiece of Buddhist architecture is a place everyone should see once in their lifetime.

"In construction, the workers must have very high skills and a very good eye so that when holding a hammer and a chisel, they can breathe life into each product, each stone. And when assembling them, they must fit together. To make such a large statue, the commander must understand the process of making each piece, each size of stone. They must calculate every smallest part possible because if they move it, it will take time and have to be done over and over again," said Mr. Nguyen Van Chung - representative of the stone supplier for the project.

Unimaginable challenges

The world's tallest Maitreya Bodhisattva statue was built on an extremely complex terrain. It is hard to believe that it could be completed in a record short time - 9 months, with 120 workers taking turns working from morning to 9 pm.

Mr. Tran Duc Hoa, Head of Tay Ninh Project Management Board said: "We have built many record-breaking projects such as Fansipan cable car in Sa Pa or the tallest Buddha statue in Asia on Ba Den mountain, but the Maitreya Bodhisattva statue is truly an unimaginable challenge."

This year's Tet, the Maitreya Spring Festival on Ba Den Mountain will have many sacred experiences right in front of the world's largest Maitreya Bodhisattva statue.

For Mr. Hoa, completing a giant project that requires centimeter-level precision, in harsh terrain and weather conditions over a period of 9 months, was initially an almost impossible task. "But by the last month of the Year of the Cat, we had truly turned our dream into reality. All the sweat and tears, for us, turned into overwhelming happiness when witnessing thousands of visitors coming to worship the Maitreya Statue in the first days of the new year," he said.

According to Venerable Thich Le Trang, Head of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha in Ho Chi Minh City: "It can be said that this is a masterpiece not only of Vietnam but also of the world, there has never been such a delicate work. This is also an opportunity for everyone to come and worship the statue and learn the virtue of joy and forgiveness of Bodhisattva Maitreya."

At an altitude of over 900m, located on the steep top of the watershed of Ba Den Mountain, the world's largest statue of Maitreya Bodhisattva has truly become a masterpiece of Buddhist architecture, one of the wonders that everyone should admire once in their life.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/ton-tuong-di-lac-bo-tat-nui-ba-den-ky-quan-khong-the-bo-lo-trong-doi-185240208093321792.htm