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Pyongyang, November 25 (KCNA) -- There is the world's biggest gilded bronze statue of Buddha at Todai Temple in Nara Prefecture, Japan. "Great statue of Buddha in Nara" is 16 metres high and 380 tons in weight and his finger is as big as the height of a man.
It took 14 years for a Korean called Kuk Ma Ryo to make the statue after he began working on it in 743. It is written in an old Japanese book "Brief History of Japan" that none of many casters dared to manufacture the Buddhist statue as it was 5 Jang (16 metres) in height but Kuk Ma Ryo successfully made it with his rare skill.
The erection of this huge statue involved complex technical process. 8 rounds of casting were required to make the statue. Its pedestal was moulded first and then followed the phased casting of the body up to its head. A mould was made with a mixture of pine rosin and wax and covered with mud to truthfully represent the delicate and soft line of the body. Then it was heated to make a mould and molten bronze poured into it to make the statue.
Japanese said that Japanese paintings including Buddhist statues created in Japan at that time strongly smack of "Korean skill". This proves that most of the things created at that time were made by such talented Koreans as Kuk Ma Ryo. The great Buddhist statue at Todai Temple which recorded a brilliant page in the art history of the east is clear evidence that the Korean nation exerted a great influence upon the cultural development in Japan.