On the northwestern slope of Sam Mountain in the Vietnamese province of An Giang, work continues on an 81-metre statue of Shakyamuni Buddha seated in meditation. It is being carved directly into the body of the rock and, once complete, is to become the tallest statue of its kind in the world. The idea of turning the mountainside into a work of art and a place of pilgrimage belongs to former provincial Party Secretary Le Phu Hoi and former head of the board of the temple complex Phan Van Chung.
To create the sculpture, builders had to extract some 165,000 cubic metres of stone. The project, whose legal preparation began back in 2013–2015, ran into difficulties. As Nguyen Phuc Hoan, head of the board of the temple complex on Sam Mountain, explained, the quality of the rock at the originally chosen site proved unsuitable. The entire statue had to be shifted deeper into the mountain and its height changed, which led to a vast volume of additional work. The search for a suitable rock massif alone took two years, from 2015 to 2017.
The statue was originally meant to be finished in 2020, but the deadline has slipped to 2027. According to Mr Hoan, the reasons were objective: work was interrupted by the pandemic, as well as by the need to relocate graves and build a special storage facility for them. In addition, blasting operations had to be halted for two years, from late 2023 to late 2025, because the permit had expired.
The large-scale intervention in the natural landscape has caused public concern. In response, the board of the temple complex stated that the project had received all the necessary approvals, including public hearings and an environmental impact assessment. Noise and dust from the works are monitored by special services, and no complaints have been received from local residents. Surplus stone is not removed but is used on site to level the grounds and build other elements of the park.
We want this statue not to be separated from nature, but to become a harmonious part of the Sam Mountain landscape. The combination of sculpture, spiritual value and the natural beauty of the mountain will create something truly special.
— Nguyen Phuc Hoan, head of the board of the temple complex on Sam Mountain
Once the work is complete, the builders plan to restore the slope's natural drainage system, reinforce it, and plant multi-tiered vegetation characteristic of the local ecosystem. Besides the 81-metre statue, three more sculptures depicting the Buddha's birth, his asceticism and his passing into nirvana will appear in the cultural park on Sam Mountain.
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