Submerging historical sites was another act of ‘cultural revolution’ by the CCP to destroy traditional culture, an observer said.
Groups of ancient Buddha statues have re-emerged in Chinese reservoirs in recent months.
These artifacts were first submerged when the Chinese communist regime started to build reservoirs and dams in the 1950s. Experts say this is another way that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has systematically erased traditional Chinese culture.
According to Chinese media reports earlier in July, a group of Song dynasty (960–1279) cliff carvings of Buddhas have emerged on the cliffs along the Yutan Reservoir in Dazu district in Chongqing, in the upper stream of the Yangtze River, considered a cradle of Chinese civilization.
The carvings are distributed on a cliff about 10 feet high and 20 feet wide. From left to right, there are six niches with a total of 27 Buddha statues.
Deng Qibing, research curator at the Dazu Rock Carvings Research Institute, said that since the beginning of spring, there has been less rainfall in Dazu district than normal. This has caused the water level in the Yutan Reservoir to drop, revealing the statues. Yutan Reservoir was built in 1959 and was expanded in June 2007.
This followed the re-emergence of two other groups of ancient Buddha statues in previous months along China’s Yangtze and Yellow rivers.
In June, also because of a drop in water levels, more than 20 carved Buddha statues that were once part of Foji Temple emerged. The temple was submerged with the creation of Shufangba Reservoir in Anyue, Sichuan Province, in 1974. The heads of the Buddha statues used to emerge almost every year in the dry season, but since the 2020s, the statues have fully emerged for a few months on multiple occasions.
In May, low water levels at Duofeng Reservoir in Qi County in Hebi, Henan Province, saw the Buddha statues in Qianzui Grottoes emerge from the water. The other cradle of Chinese civilization, the Yellow River, runs through Henan Province. The statues in the Qianzui Grottoes are believed to have been carved during the Eastern Wei (534—550). For thousands of years, they had been on the cliffs, until the middle of the 20th century, when the Chinese communist regime under Mao Zedong built the Duofeng Reservoir and flooded them.
The staff of the Qi County Cultural Reservation and Tourism Administration said that because the Buddha statues were submerged for many years, they have been corroded, and many of the heads and hands of the Buddha statues have disappeared.
By Alex Wu
