23. A Buddha by the Rivers of LeShan
We all thought, what's left of this trip now that we have already been to the major scenic area - Jiuzhaigou? The flight from Huanglong took us back to the Kempinski Hotel in Chengdu. The next morning, our capable bus driver went south and by noon we reached the city of LeShan(乐山), situated at the confluence of three rivers.
What made LeShan famous is the Grand Buddha shown in this photo. The Buddha is so large that one can even see the location from Google Earth, just type in these coordinates: 29°32'48.77"N, 103°46'9.27"E.
The Buddha was carved into the river side rocks beginning in 713 AD, during the Tang dynasty. It took 90 years to finish this historic project. At 71 meters in height, it is the largest ancient stone-carved buddha in the world. We were told that the reason the monk HaiTong built a buddha here was because quite a few people who sailed through these treacherous waters perished. So the monk decided to invoke the powers of Buddha. Whether it has helped or not I would not know, but it certainly makes this place very interesting and very impressive.
Because this is where the waters of Min Jiang, the Dadu He, and the Qingyi Jiang collide, when we sailed on the boat, we could clearly see how the different colors of the waters got mixed mid-stream. The Min Jiang's water has a yellowish color while those of the Dadu are black. The Min runs faster while the Dadu holds it own.
The engineering of the Grand Buddha was also very sophisticated. There is a drainage system carved into the rocks so as to minimize the erosion of the statue by natural elements. It is simply amazing how the Buddha has been so well-preserved for over 2000 thousand years.
This photo shows the same kind of ferry that we were on. On top of the rocks, there is an elaborate park that includes pagodas, several temples and towers. But we did not have time to visit there. But just seeing the Grand Buddha was a real exciting visit.
Late in the afternoon, we continued on to the Emei Shan Scenic Area and checked into the very interesting Hongzhushan Hotel.
What made LeShan famous is the Grand Buddha shown in this photo. The Buddha is so large that one can even see the location from Google Earth, just type in these coordinates: 29°32'48.77"N, 103°46'9.27"E.
The Buddha was carved into the river side rocks beginning in 713 AD, during the Tang dynasty. It took 90 years to finish this historic project. At 71 meters in height, it is the largest ancient stone-carved buddha in the world. We were told that the reason the monk HaiTong built a buddha here was because quite a few people who sailed through these treacherous waters perished. So the monk decided to invoke the powers of Buddha. Whether it has helped or not I would not know, but it certainly makes this place very interesting and very impressive.
Because this is where the waters of Min Jiang, the Dadu He, and the Qingyi Jiang collide, when we sailed on the boat, we could clearly see how the different colors of the waters got mixed mid-stream. The Min Jiang's water has a yellowish color while those of the Dadu are black. The Min runs faster while the Dadu holds it own.
The engineering of the Grand Buddha was also very sophisticated. There is a drainage system carved into the rocks so as to minimize the erosion of the statue by natural elements. It is simply amazing how the Buddha has been so well-preserved for over 2000 thousand years.
This photo shows the same kind of ferry that we were on. On top of the rocks, there is an elaborate park that includes pagodas, several temples and towers. But we did not have time to visit there. But just seeing the Grand Buddha was a real exciting visit.
Late in the afternoon, we continued on to the Emei Shan Scenic Area and checked into the very interesting Hongzhushan Hotel.
Labels: giant buddha, hongzhushan, Leshan, Mt. Emei, 乐山, 峨嵋山
posted by thisandthat at
1:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home