600-year-old Buddhist statue revealed; coincidence or heaven’s will?

China’s Yangtze basin area is going through unprecedented heat waves and droughts. The water levels in many places where the Yangtze river flows are hitting new record lows. Rivers have dried up, ships are grounded, and crops are wilting. The severe drought is impacting Chinese citizens’ lives. But as Lao Tzu wrote in his book Dao De Jing, “It is upon bad fortune that good fortune leans, upon good fortune that bad fortune rests,” the droughts have also brought about an unexpected occurrence.

As the water levels plunged, some used-to-be-half-submerged ancient temples became exposed in the dried lake, such as the Guanyin Temple and the Luoxing Dun in Poyang Lake in Lushan, China.

During this time, several centuries-old relics have revealed themselves. In Chongqing, a trio of Buddhist statues appeared. Reuters reported that the statues could have been built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and these statues have not been seen in recent times. Also, in Chongqing, an ancient bridge submerged in the water all year round has recently appeared in its entirety. Known as the Anlan bridge, it was first built in 1851 during the Qing dynasty. The bridge used to lead to a Guanyin Temple located at the eastern end of the bridge.