How was the Mengshan Buddha discovered in the Northern Qi Dynasty? What's the story?

The Mengshan Giant Buddha in the Northern Qi Dynasty was discovered by Wang Jianni in 1983. At that time, he was conducting a field survey of geographical names in Mengshan area. When Wang Jianni was exploring a place called Dadu Cliff, he found that there were still some ancient relics in the flat area behind Dadu Cliff. After detailed investigation, it is found that Dadu Cliff is a part of the Buddha's body, and there are more than ten meters of earth and stone buried under it, and the surrounding area is also broken. So, why did Wang Jianni have such an intuition? It turned out that his grandfather Wang Jianping was the founder and the first president of Shanxi Buddhist Culture Association. When Wang Jianni was a child, he heard many stories about Buddhist culture from his grandfather, including the Mengshan Giant Buddha in Taiyuan, Shanxi. And just let Wang Jianni met, so a coincidence, found the Buddha.

Mengshan Giant Buddha has a long history and was founded in the Northern Qi Dynasty. Wen Xuandi ordered the Buddha statue to be carved on the back hill of Kaihua Temple, which is the embryonic form of Mengshan Giant Buddha. During the period of Tang Wuzong, Buddha statues were destroyed in a large area due to the movement of destroying Buddha. Later, Li Keyong, Liu Zhiyuan and others paid for the restoration, and the Buddhist temples and statues were basically restored. According to historical records, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Wu Zetian all visited Mengshan Giant Buddha.

The head of the rediscovered Mengshan Giant Buddha has disappeared, but it is still 30 meters high from its feet to its chest, which is very spectacular. Although Mengshan Giant Buddha was rediscovered as early as 1983 and listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Taiyuan in 20001,its renovation project did not begin until 2006 under the background of developing tourism. The reconstructed head is as high as 12 meters, and the total height is more than 40 meters.

Now Mengshan Giant Buddha has been developed into a tourist attraction, and there are eight Buddha statues around Mengshan Giant Buddha. The local government has been planning to restore the remaining eight Buddha statues, expand the scale of the scenic spot and attract tourists from all over the country in order to obtain better economic benefits.