REMARKABLE MONUMENT IN WESTERN CHINA 563 



This was tlic Buddha of wliose rumored existence Baber and Hart 

 had already made mention. 



Thus I have outlined all that had been printed in English regard- 

 ing this mysterious marvel. Travelers, of the book-writing sort, had 

 ignored it or passed it by. Not one of them had the initiative to go 

 fifty miles off the beaten track in order to picture and describe the 

 most remarkable monument in that part of the world. 



Early in 1910, the writer of this account visited Jab-ding and — 

 although not anxious to pose as one " alert for anything that might put 

 him on the track of fresh discoveries " — decided to do what the writers 

 of books— Baber, Hart, Little, Johnston, d'Ollone— had neglected; to 

 travel two days' journey to the east in order to definitely locate and 

 describe the rumored marvel. 



It was a narrow winding road which led across the hills and 

 through the valleys, zig-zagging hither and yon. The customary 

 method of travel in that region is by sedan chair, but, owing to the fact 

 that the season was the Chinese New Year, it was almost impossible to 

 obtain chair carriers: most of the distance had to be walked. Were I 

 writing a story, it might be made entertaining by an account of way- 

 side scenes and daily incidents of travel. I might describe the farm- 

 houses with their low tiled roofs and their hedges of bamboo, the bridges 

 built of massive masonry; the stone portals spanning the way to com- 

 memorate by their scriptions virtuous or useful lives, the tall pagoda 

 rising from its hilltop in the distance to signalize the presence of a city. 

 As this is not a story, let us hasten to the end of the fifty miles, and 

 view the Great Buddha. x\t the end of two days of travel, we saw 

 before us the colossal image in all its dignity; not nearly so large as 

 rumor had made it out, but a Colossus still. Of course, the story of the 

 whole hill having been hewn into a figure was a fabrication. The figure 

 is on the same plan as the one on the river bank at Jah-ding. The 

 upper half of the hill-side consists of a sandstone cliff, and in this a 

 niche fifty feet broad had been cut, leaving a central core of stone, 

 which was then carved into a figure seated in European style, not cross- 

 legged as Buddha is so often represented. The writer measured the 

 breadth of the opening; using that as a unit of measurement on the 

 photograph, the height of the image is not less than one hundred feet, 

 that of the hill not less than two hundred. As the camera was pointing 

 upward at a small angle, the vertical distances must be greater than the 

 figures given. 



The reader will observe by glancing at the picture that a series of 

 five tiled roofs, descending like a flight of steps, have been built before 

 the image to protect it from the weather, so that only the face can be 

 seen from without. But by going within, the location of the feet can be 

 determined ; they are on a level with the space between the two lowest 

 roofs. A white-fronted structure may be seen below and to the right; 

 it is a temple, and another temple crowns the height. As the writer 



