Leshan, China

We met Laura at the hotel this morning and drove 2hrs to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha!

This giant buddha is the largest in the world, 71meters tall (233ft), and took three generations to complete.  Construction was led by a monk named Haitan who by legend gorged out his eyeballs instead of giving away all the funding he raised for the buddha to the government.  The local saying about the buddha is, "The mountain is a Buddha, and the Buddha is a mountain" because the mountain it is carve into looks like a slumbering buddha with the Leshan Giant Buddha at its heart.

To get to the giant buddha we hiked up to the temples through a bamboo forest of sorts.  People had carved their names into the bamboo.  I'm sure it said something like, "Wong was here" but the chinese characters made it seem much more mysterious!  We passed stone carvings with poetry and stories of Haitan as well as the famous ying/yang symbols of the Chinese culture.

 

 In one particular temple, there were three gold buddhas representing past, present and future.  In front of them were practicing monks chanting and assisting other with their offerings - it was lovely to witness!  Probably my favorite spot of the day :)

After walking thru the temple area, a long line stood before us to hike down to the giant buddha:

  

 See the giant buddha's head past the trees?

We had many, many people stare at us in this line and even take our picture.  It tends to bother me way more than Brandon.  One lady even showed him the picture she took of us! 

The hike down to the bottom of the buddha:

 

There were small alcoves along the way of other buddhas:

The path down:

 

We made it!

 

And now the hike back up to the head!

Laura gave us snacks on the way up but we later figured out the beef jerky was actually yak meat!  LOL!!!

Near the top was an honorary monument to the monk, Haitan:

 

 

 Over one thousand 'buns' make up the hair on the giant buddha!

The architecture around the temples was beautiful!

I mean, those carvings!

Back down to meet our car, there were a couple of different alcoves of other buddhas.

Not giant, but still big in size!

And of course had to take a picture of the frogs for Grams Juanita!!!

 

It took 2.5hrs back to the hotel in traffic.  We rested, had dinner, then headed to bed so we could check out of the hotel and visit the pandas in the morning!

PANDAS next post!