He said he felt some initial hesitation toward the project. "Initially I was thinking only about the statue," he said "and something from my Christian upbringing balked at it. ... Gradually, as I have lived with and constantly thought about the project, it has become clear that it is the most brilliantly conceived method to benefit living beings."
Despite its enormous size, the project organizers have decided to cast the statue in bronze, because "it must last for 1,000 years."
Kedge said the statue poses enormous technical challenges. Metallurgist Rudy Hardervijk said that there were few with the technical expertise to create the required large plates of bronze of sufficient structural strength.
Many visits have been made to sites of other monumental statues, including visits with Robert Landsman, the man who had been project manager for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty (46m), and the managers of the Ushiku statue in Tokyo (120m).
Special emphasis has been placed on ensuring the statue helps transform the town of Bodhgaya, a holy site for Buddhists, but which is disintegrating under grinding poverty. According to Choying, some locals had asked why it was necessary to build a statue so far away, rather than in Taiwan, where it would be more convenient to visit and make offerings. Her response was that having the statue built in that holy place would benefit Buddhists all over the world rather than just Taiwanese.
According to Kedge, much of the preliminary work has been completed, and the group aims to complete the whole project by the end of 2005. In a report in The Observer newspaper on May 13, the Chinese government had announced that it would complete a huge Buddha that would stand 2.7m higher than the Bodhgaya statue. Kedge dismissed any idea that there is competition between the Maitraya Project and the Chinese government and simply said that "if we have inspired them to such a project, this should be reason for joy."
To learn more about the Maitreya Project check out http://www.maitreyaproject.org/home/index.html
RSS