China launched the facelift of the world's highest Buddha statue this morning in Leshan, southwest China's Sichuan province.

Zeng Zhiliang, an engineer of ancient architecture, climbed up onto the ten-storey-high statue to began the repair work, together with more than a dozen experts.

"We will leave a well-preserved Buddha statue for our offspring, " Zeng said.

Zeng and other experts will clean up the body of the statue, piece up the cracks, and install drainage devices and protection facilities against wind and water.

The repair project is divided into two stages, in April and at the end of this year respectively, costing a total of 250 million yuan (US$30 million), including US$2 million of World Bank loans.

The Buddha statue, sitting on a cliff, 71 meters from top to bottom and 28 meters from left to right, is 18 meters higher than the standing Buddha statue at Bamian Valley, Afghanistan, once thought to be the highest of its kind in the world.

Carving of the Buddha started in 713 and was completed in 803, in the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty in Chinese history.

In recent years, erosion has become a serious threat to the statue, which has been included on the World Cultural Heritage list by the UNESCO.

Experts from seven cultural relics protection research institutes across China and those from the UNESCO had made a diagnosis on the cause of the statue's "illnesses", and they worked out a detailed repair plan.

However, experts say that the way to prevent the statue from further erosion will depend on the elimination of air pollution in Leshan city.

(People’s Daily 04/03/2001)