The Thiruvalluvar Statue stands on a small island off Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India, where three seas meet. V. Ganapati Sthapati designed it. Morarji Desai laid the foundation stone on April 15, 1979, and M. Karunanidhi unveiled it on January 1, 2000.
The statue and its pedestal together stand 133 feet (41 meters) tall, matching the 133 chapters of the Thirukkural. The 38-foot (12-meter) pedestal stands for the 38 chapters of the book on virtue. The three raised fingers of the right hand stand for the three parts of the Kural.
It is built of 3,681 stones and weighs 7,000 tonnes. The sculptor argued that stone would outlast metal. The interior is hollow from the toe to the scalp. The statue survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It is chemically treated about once every four years to prevent corrosion from sea air.
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