Tears in the event of a disaster, the Great Buddha "manifests"
It is rumored that every time a disaster occurs, this thousand-year-old Buddha will "appear", and it has "closed its eyes and shed tears" several times in history. The breathtaking giant stone Buddha attracts many tourists every year, and after thousands of years of washing, the appearance of the big Buddha has also changed a lot.
This giant stone Buddha is the Leshan Buddha. It is the most completed stone Buddha statue in the world, built in the first year of the Tang Dynasty (713 AD) and not completed until the 19th year of Yuan Zhen (803 AD).
Unlike other stone Buddha statues, Leshan Buddha is made from the environment itself, and after completion, it looks very majestic with its back against the mountain, hands on its knees, and gaze ahead. Despite many injuries in history, people's devotion to the Buddha has led many people to spontaneously raise funds to repair the Buddha.
With a total height of 71 meters, a hand width of 10 meters, and a foot width of 9 meters, you can feel the shock of this giant Buddha statue just by standing on the instep of the big Buddha. According to historical records, the construction standards of the Leshan Buddha were completely in accordance with the requirements of the Buddhist "Statue Measurement Sutra", and the style was also fully in line with the statues of the Tang Dynasty.
Today, the Buddha is a World Heritage Site and a destination visited by millions of tourists every year. The heavy sense of history, coupled with the inheritance of religious culture, has also brought a lot of legends and mysteries to the Leshan Buddha.
According to relevant records, Leshan Buddha closed his eyes and shed tears in 1962, 1963, 1976 and 2000. The years 1962 and 1963 coincided with the worst periods of natural disasters and economic difficulties in China. During this period, famine was severe, food production was extremely low, and the lives of the people were very difficult.
The year 1976 was the year of the death of the country's leader, and the whole country was immersed in grief. In the same year in Tangshan, a large earthquake displaced many people, and many places across the country joined the support and relief operation.
The catastrophic water accident of 2000 caused millions of yuan in economic losses to the mainland, and these disasters reached the Great Buddha, and the stone statues seemed to perceive the manifestation and closed their eyes and wept. However, this is just a folk saying, and modern society pays attention to scientific evidence.
The truth of the Great Buddha's tears
In fact, the closing of the eyes of the Leshan Buddha and tearing is not a manifestation of the Buddha statue, but a natural phenomenon, which is called acid deposition, and the culprit is acid rain. Acid deposition is also known as acid deposition, which is the process by which acidic components are transported from the atmosphere to the Earth's surface.
In this process, sulfides, nitrogen oxides and sulfate particulate matter and wet deposition settle to the Earth's surface in the form of acid rain. This situation alters the distribution of plant and aquatic species, soil composition, including pH and nutrient content of water.
Water and soil acidification will significantly change the local vegetation environment, and will also bring water pollution. However, the acidic components in acid rain are not high in the concentration of acidic components for the human body, and will not have direct adverse effects, but will cause asthma and bronchitis.
But for buildings, it can be miserable, for those places of interest, they were built early, did not undergo acid erosion treatment, and the choice of building materials is mostly natural stone, wood, etc. The acidic components of acid rain can damage statues, ancient buildings, especially statues made of limestone, marble and other rocks.
Since the statue contains a large amount of calcium carbonate, the acid reacts with the calcification in the stone to form gypsum, which peels off through weathering. If this phenomenon is experienced long enough, it can cause serious damage to the stone statue.
Mottling is still a trifle, and if the situation is serious, monuments such as stone statues are even at risk of fragmentation and collapse. From the natural process of Leshan Buddha, air pollution in Sichuan was very serious in the early days, and the development of heavy industry had an impact on the local area.
The polluted clouds gradually formed acid rain, and in the early years, the construction of civil engineering and industrial construction, the air pollution increased year by year. In addition, the air in the Sichuan Basin is already moist, and the effect of acid settlement will be intensified.
Plant future causes and get today's fruits
Therefore, every year when it rains, the Buddha will experience different degrees of corrosion, and over time, it will naturally appear like tear stains. And several major events in history are not directly causally related to the tears of the Great Buddha.
In fact, in addition to tears, Leshan Buddha also has a long-term flower face. This is also due to natural factors, Leshan Buddha is located at the confluence of the Min, Tsing Yi and Dadu rivers, where there is abundant rainfall and rapid plant growth.
Whenever there is sufficient precipitation, mold organisms such as moss and lichen that usually grow on the stone statue turn green. After a period of rapid growth, the vegetation environment will face short-term dormancy, at which time the withered and blackened plants will make the big Buddha face.
Since the soil structure of Lingyun Mountain is not uniform, the construction of the Great Buddha is a natural integration, which leads to inconsistencies in the seepage and drainage of the stone statue. Although the ancients built the Buddha with drainage grooves and channels on the ears and chest, sandstone has stronger water permeability than mudstone, and the different materials cause stagnant water to not be discharged, which will naturally affect the Buddha over time.
In order to protect the Big Buddha, after the founding of New China, relevant institutions in Sichuan Province quickly launched protection and repair work on the Big Buddha. In the 80s, the Chinese Institute of Cultural Relics and other units decided to restore the head, body and hands of the Buddha after inspecting the Buddha.
Every year, the restoration and maintenance work is changing the appearance of the Buddha little by little, and the Leshan Buddha has changed from closed eyes to open eyes. Today, the Leshan Buddha has been completely new. In addition to the view, the Great Buddha was built to reduce the water potential at the confluence of the river, and the position of the Buddha statue is also a very intuitive water measuring platform.
It is not difficult to see that people's devout faith and reverence for the Great Buddha eventually allowed it to survive through the ages. Presumably it is also in this way, although the so-called "manifestation" seems idealistic, but it is also the embodiment of people's simple values.