THIRUVALLUVAR STATUE

This is the world second highest statue of 133 feets

The great thiruvalluvar who wrote thirukural before jesus christ birth,Thirukural gives the discipline to live in this world. No one will return from kanyakumari before visiting here.

In 1979, the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai laid the foundation stone for the statue. However, the installation and the sculpting work began on September 6, 1990, on the tiny island adjacent to Vivekananda Rock Memorial when funds were allocated in the 1990-91 budget. Initially, the project stalled but then recommenced in 1997 and was completed on January 1, 2000. At the cost of more than US$1 million (INR 61.4 million), it employed about 150 workers, sculptors, assistants and supervisors. The slight bend around the waist made the design challenging. Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati solved the problem by creating a full-length wooden prototype before construction. Study of this prototype led to the identification of an energy line (known in Vastu science  as kayamadhyasutra), currently an empty cavity in the center of the statue from top to bottom. Sthapati designed the statue to survive earthquakes of unexpected magnitude.

The stone work was divided amongst three workshops, in Kanyakumari, Ambasamudram and Shankarapuram. Ambasamudram contributed 5,000 tons of stones, while Shankarapuram was quarried for 2,000 tons of high quality granite stones for the outer portion of the statue. While the largest of the 3,681 stones weighed over 15 tons, the majority weighed three to eight tons. An interesting detail is the 19-foot-high face, with the ears, nose, eyes, mouth, forehead all made of individual stones carved by hand. Stumps of palmyra tree and poles of casuarina (ironwood) were used for scaffolding. It took 18,000 casuarina poles tied together with two truckloads of ropes to reach the top of the statue.