China News Service, Shaoxing, April 22 (Xiang Jing and Yu Yingying) The national key cultural preservation unit known as "the largest Buddha in the south of the Yangtze River"-the stone Maitreya statue of Xinchang Great Buddha Temple in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, welcomed its first major overhaul in 30 years in early April.
How to repair a Buddha statue that is more than 1,500 years old?
Where is the difficulty in repairing?
The stone Maitreya statue stands in the "Millennium Ancient Temple" Xinchang Great Buddha Temple, which was completed in 516 AD.
For several days, the Daxiong Hall where the Shi Mai Le statue is located has been closed, and a notice of the repair project has been posted on the gate.
Measure, cut, fix...In the Daxiong Hall, the construction workers are setting up steel pipe scaffolding, and they are very careful at every step.
“Because it is a cave environment and the terrain is relatively complicated, it is necessary to protect cultural relics and consider the convenience of construction when erecting. Special care is required.” Ding Jianping, the person in charge of the project construction party, said that in order for the repair work to proceed smoothly, they must first go around the stone Maitreya likes to build scaffolding, and the steel pipes used are long or short, and the steel pipes need to be cut at any time according to the situation, so the construction project takes a long time.
It is understood that the statue of Shi Mai Le is 16.05 meters high, and the construction party plans to build a six-story steel tube scaffold with a total length of about 2,600 meters.
At present, the erection of steel pipes on the fourth floor platform has been basically completed.
"In a few days, the construction of steel pipe scaffolding will be completed. Next, we will clean up the dust on the surface of the Buddha statue, and arrange for special personnel to conduct accurate surveys with professional instruments to understand the internal conditions of the Buddha statue." Ding Jianping said that the surface cleaning work may be required. It took 10 days, and at the same time, they will further improve the repair plan based on the results of the second exploration.
After preliminary exploration, the construction staff found that the Shi Mai Le statue had many cracks, accumulated water, and local phenomenon such as peeling, hollowing, and peeling.
According to reports, because the stone Maitreya statue is built on the mountain, the environment in the cave is relatively humid, and the body of the Buddha is prone to condensation. The combination of water and dust will cause a certain amount of corrosion on the Buddha.
The restoration of cultural relics is tedious and does not tolerate sloppy work.
As early as 2019, the local area began to prepare a repair plan.
In January this year, the state approved the repair plan.
After exploring the damage of the Buddha statue, erecting scaffolding, surface cleaning, and secondary exploration, the entire repair project will begin with the restoration of the hairpin of the Shi Maitreya statue.
According to official sources from Xinchang County, the repair project follows the principle of "safety of cultural relics first" and the planned construction period is one and a half years.
(Finish)