Gilded Buddha statues on building roof demolished

Five gilded Buddha statues and two Buddhist temples on top of a building more than 10 storeys high in the business district in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province. [Photo: thepaper.com]

Construction workers demolished four out of the nine gilded Buddha statues on top of a high-rise building in east China's Anhui Province.

There are also two Buddhist temples standing beside the statues atop of the Global Financial Plaza Investment Service Centre in the capital city of Hefei.

Local residents say the structures were completed in 2008, at the same time as the building.

The demolition started on Thursday night and was completed by Friday morning.

It's reported that the owner of the investment service center kept ordinary citizens away from the roof but often invited friends and business partners to pray in front of the Buddhas.

However, an official from the district's nationality and religious affair bureau said on Wednesday that he was informed of the statues only recently, adding that "open-air Buddhas are definitely not allowed to be built on roofs."

He said normally people have to apply to the municipal Buddhist association in the name of a religious group if they intend to erect Buddhist statues. The application then has to be submitted to the municipal religious affairs bureau for approval.

In 1996, the religious affairs division of the State Council, or China's cabinet, started a campaign to regulate and clamp down on open-air Buddha statues erected without approval.

However in recent years, China has once again seen a growth in similar structures. In 2013, a private Buddhist chapel on the roof of a residential building in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, had to be demolished.