You live in asia for awhile you see a lot of temples. And in these temples you see a lot of Buddhas. When you live in China, a country that believes bigger is better, you are bound to see not only Buddha’s but some of the biggest Buddha’s in all the world.
The granddaddy of them all is Leshan’s Big Buddha which I went to way back in 2009. It is the largest stone statue of buddha and the tallest “pre-modern world” statue ever. It was carved in the side of a mountain and took 90 years to complete. You can read more about it in my original blog entry.
But everywhere I go places boast of “the biggest Buddha.” For instance I went to the oldest and largest reclining Buddha in Thailand (located in Bangkok).
And in Hong Kong I went to the Tian Tan statue, the largest seated Buddha in that area.
I have a vague memory of seeing the largest jade buddha (which was only a few feet tall, but carved out of jade). Can’t remember where it was and feeling to lazy to google it, but I know I did.
I like the big ass statues. The old ones are impressive in their craftsmanship, and the new ones are impressive in the scale and scope. So if there is a big ass buddah in the area, I’ll make an effort to see them.
So when I was in Zhangye and heard there was a temple called the Big Buddha Temple I couldn’t resist. He was of the lying variety and was very impressive indeed.
It’s China’s biggest indoor sleeping Buddha statue. It’s about 100 years old and is 34.5 meters long (113 feet). It is said that eight people could stand on its ear, but I didn’t try.
What I did do was sneak a picture despite the many “no photo” signs. (Don’t tsk, dozens of others were taking pics and the guard didn’t stop any of them, so basically it was okay.)
Soon after I entered a more Muslim part of China and temples gave way to mosques. But no trip in China is complete without visiting a big ass Buddha!
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