We human beings love to build gigantic structures. For whatever the reasons — to show off wealth, to commemorate a great leader, to remind faith or to promote culture — human beings have built numerous humongous tombs, towers, castles, and others throughout history. During the lockdown in Sydney, I took interest in virtual tours and “visited” some of these gigantic structures in the world. Among all, I found statues especially interesting because statues often symbolize what people value or who they honor. The visual content above displays the 10 tallest statues in the world.
Eight out of Ten Are Buddhist Statues
The tallest statue in the world is Statue of Unity in Gujrat, India. It depicts Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister of India from 1947 to 1950. The height of the statue is 182 meters or 597 feet. Just to give you an idea, it is almost four times as tall as the Statue of Liberty, (presumably) the most famous statue in the world.
Surprisingly or not, eight out of ten tallest statues are of Buddhism. Four in Japan, two in China, and one in each Myanmar and Thailand.
The ninth tallest statue is Rodina-Mat Zovyot in Russia. It is a statue of a woman with a raised sword in her hand. The woman is allegory of the Motherland, as the literal meaning of its name suggests, “Homeland mother is calling.” Having a height of 85 meters or 279 feet, it is the tallest statue in Europe.
Correlation between Construction of Tall Statues and Economic Growth
Now let’s focus on the year of construction. Tallest statues in newly industrialized countries (China, India, Thailand) were built in relatively recent years after their economy started undergoing rapid growth. On the other hand, those in Japan were built in 1980s to early 1990s. The country was in an economic bubble in those years. In other words, construction of tall statues seemingly comes along with economic growth. Of course, there would be a number of other reasons for constructing (or not constructing) statues. However, it may not be too wrong to say that we may see more new tall statues especially in so-called emerging markets in coming years.
You May Also Like…
Are you interested in the world rankings? Then you might also like the following visual content:
