Depicted by the statue is the Buddha Amitābha, a prominent figure in Mahayana Buddhism.

The giant Buddha statue is carved into a cliff of sandy rocks at the Tianti Mountain, separated by a dam in the Huangyang River Reservoir in Wuwei, Gansu province. SHEN LONGQUAN/FOR CHINA DAILY How ...

including a tiny fabric bag—"closed with rope and sealed with two stamps"—concealed in a crevice behind the giant Buddha at the time it was constructed. "We still haven't opened it yet," he ...

Currently, the only piece of the statue that is still missing is the Buddha’s right hand, which archaeologists hope to unearth in the same vicinity where both the head and torso were found.