The mountain is a Buddha, the Buddha is a mountain

Mengshan Buddha, also known as Xishan Buddha, is located in Mengshan, about 20 kilometers southwest of Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. The Mengshan Buddha was carved during the Tianbao period of the Northern Qi Dynasty. It was originally a cliff Buddha statue behind the Kaihua Temple of Mengshan. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mengshan Buddha was destroyed. The Buddha was rediscovered in 1980, but the Buddha's head was missing. The current head of the Buddha is newly carved by later generations. In history, the Mengshan Buddha has been damaged many times. In 620 AD, Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, held a ceremony here and changed the name of the temple back to Kaihua Temple. However, in 657 AD, when Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty toured here, the Mengshan Buddha was covered by a huge kasaya caused by Wu Zetian. In 845 AD, Emperor Wuzong of Tang destroyed Buddhism, and the Buddhist temple of Kaihua Temple was destroyed. The Mengshan Buddha has since been exposed to the wilderness. Later, Li Ke rebuilt the Buddhist temple of Kaihua Temple after worshiping the Mengshan Buddha. However, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, with the change of the dynasty, the Buddha Kaihua Temple was once again destroyed by war and eroded by nature. Only the shed was still there. The Mengshan Buddha was also destroyed. The Buddha's head collapsed and was buried between the stones in the ground and the abdomen. This 800-year-old Buddha statue has faded. Until 1983, a Taiyuan man named Wang Jianpei was investigating local names and found a place name called Daduyan. After investigation, he found that Daduyan was actually the chest of Mengshan Buddha. Although the Buddha's head was lost, the exposed upper part was 16.75 meters high. Mengshan Buddha