China restores 800-year-old Buddhist statue

CHONGQING, June 13 -- Chinese experts have completed restoration of a famous 800-year-old Buddha statue after seven years of work.

Visitors now could see a new appearance of the "Qianshou Guanyin", a statue with 1,000 hands, in Dazu County, southwestern Chongqing Municipality.

The restoration program began in 2008 and cost about 60 million yuan (9.8 million U.S. dollars).

Workers restored 830 hands and 227 instruments, using one million gold foils, consolidating the dated pieces of the statue and thoroughly cleaning it.

It is the largest restoration project on the statue,which underwent repairs at least four times in history.

The project is expected to help the Qianshou Guanyin keep glowing for at least 50 years, said Zhan Changfa, a researcher of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, who is in charge of the project.

The statue, 7.7 meters high and 12.5 meters wide, was carved during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 to 1279). It is a masterpiece among thousands of individual rock carvings in the grottoes in Dazu. The carvings date back as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907). They were listed as major World Heritage sites by UNESCO in 1999.

Over the centuries, the sculpture's color had faded, some of the gold foils peeled off, cracks appeared.

Heritage authorities will continue to monitor the statue's condition and take timely measures to prevent damage and pass its beauty to the next 800 years, said Tong Mingkang, deputy head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, at a ceremony marking the completion of restoration on Saturday.