GIANT BUDDHA RESTS ON ROCK OF GIBRALTAR words | Reg Reynolds
When the Chief Minister for the State of Andhra Pradesh, India saw the Statue of Liberty he decided he wanted something similar for his capital city Hyderabad. Ramao Rao, Chief Minister from 1983 to 1989, was already known for the many statues of historical and political figures he had contracted to be built in the country, when he visited New York in 1984. Upon seeing the ‘Lady Liberty’, which was undergoing restoration at the time, he is said to have remarked, “I want something like that...it would be my contribution to society”. Rama Rao chose Gautama Buddha *[See note] because, “He was a humanitarian who told the whole truth to the people”. The chosen site was to be the Rock of Gibraltar a tiny island in Lake Hassan Sagar at Hyderabad. The small rock jutting out of the lake is believed to have been named by British surveyors.
After a long search Rama Rao found a solid white granite rock on a mountainside 40 miles from Hyderabad. More than 200 artisans toiled for more than two years to complete the statue which is the largest ‘single stone’ Buddha statue in the world. Including the base it is 72 feet (22 metres) in height and weighs 450 tonnes. By comparison the Statue of Liberty is 305 feet high (93 metres) from ground level to the tip of the flame
Rama Rao was voted out before his Buddha could be transferred and installed on the rock and that process, although ultimately successful, resulted in tragedy
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2014
74-80_mar.indd 75
on the torch. The largest Buddha statue in the world is the Spring Temple Buddha (erected 2008) at Hunan, China. It is made of copper, weighs 1,000 tonnes and, including the base, is 682 feet high (208 metres). Sadly Rama Rao was voted out before his Buddha could be transferred and installed on the rock and that process, although ultimately successful, resulted in tragedy.
In March 1990 the statue was hauled by lorry and trailer to the shore of Hassan Sagar. A company of men shifted the giant stone onto a barge but after travelling only a 100 metres it toppled over, crushing ten people to death before falling into the lake. The salvage operation took two years but finally on 1st December, 1992 a smiling Buddha was resting comfortably on the Rock of Gibraltar. The Dalai Lama consecrated the statue in 2006. n Note: *Gautama Buddha, popularly known as simply ‘Buddha’ was the wise man on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He was born in the foothills of the Himalayas and is believed to have taught in Eastern India in the fourth century BC.
75
27/10/2014 12:23