Chinese workers will start to build a 155-meters-tall copper statue of Bodhisattva at Jiuhua Mountain, one of the four major Buddhist shrines in China, on September 9.

It will be the largest statue of Bodhisattva in the world when completed.

Bodhisattva is the god of wisdom in Buddhism.

The archetype of the statue will be Jin Qiaojue, a prince from the Xinluo Kingdom (presently the Korean Peninsula), who, according to historical records, went to Mount Jiuhua to become a monk in 719 and spent 75 years there until his death at the age of 99.

Wang Jiaxiang, deputy head of the office with the preparatory committee for construction of the copper statue of Bodhisattva, said the statue would be built by the Luoyang Copper Processing Conglomerate with imitation gold copper materials developed by the group company. The builder was selected via a public bidding.

The statue will consist of 1,100 pieces of copper cast and will weigh about 1,000 tons. Casting of some parts of the statue has already begun. It will take three years to finish the construction, said Wang.

According to Wang, the construction of the entire scenic site will cost 460 million yuan (about US$55.4 million), of which, building of the copper statue itself will cost US$18.1 million.

(Xinhua 05/06/2001)