It was to have been the world's largest statue - a 500-foot Buddha on a giant throne, visible for hundreds of miles across the dusty Indian plains. But the designers of the towering Maitreya Buddha - soon to be built in the holy city of Bodhgaya - received a nasty shock last week when the Chinese revealed that they are to construct their own monster Buddha, which will be nine feet higher. In a gloating announcement, China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, said the Buddha will be built in the south-east of the country at Jiuhua mountain. 'It will be the largest statue of Bodhisattava in the world when completed,' the agency added. The news has horrified Indian planners. They have been toiling away on their project since 1984, when a now dead Tibetan lama conceived the vision of building a giant statue at Bodhgaya. The northern Indian town in Bihar is where Buddha gained enlightenment 2,500 years ago. It has been a place of Buddhist pilgrimage for centuries. British engineers who have spent the past 18 months working on the Maitreya Buddha were yesterday coming to terms with the news. 'If they want to knock up a statue as quickly as possible, that's something for them,' said Chris Cotton of British firm Mott McDonald last night. 'We are looking to design a Buddha that will last a thousand years. Ours will be superior in terms of materials and quality. We don't understand totally what they are planning to do yet.' McDonald is one of several British companies that have been involved in designing the epic Buddha, due to be unveiled in 2005.