(This article was published in the Shenzhen Daily on Oct 10, 2016.)
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| The Great Buddha at Lingshan Scenic Area |
In January of 2012 I was privileged to be invited to speak at the installation of the new abbot at Kaiyuan Temple in Wuxi. He had formerly been my student at a Buddhist academy, and wanted international representatives on his Big Day.
His publicity officer was a young monk who also had been a student of mine. He insisted on showing us around, which led to one of the most amazing sites I have ever visited.
This was the "Mount Lingshan Grand Buddhist Scenic Area."
The centerpiece of the 30-hectare (74-acre) park is the 88-meter (289-foot) "Great Buddha at Lingshan." A standing Amitabha Buddha, it has one hand raised in the "Fear Not" gesture, and the other lowered in the "Boon-Giving" gesture.
Just one hand is 11.7 meters (38.4 feet) high and 5.5 meters (18 feet) wide! You can stand in front of a replica in a square below the statue.
Also on the grounds are numerous structures. One of these, usually translated the "Brahma Palace," is actually meant to represent a kind of heaven (so my student kept slyly saying to me before our visit, "Teacher! I will take you to heaven today!")
Another interesting feature is the "Nine Dragons Bathing Shakyamuni." This is a closed mechanical lotus blossom 7.2-meters (23.6-feet) high; five times a day music plays, the lotus opens, and a gilded statue of the newly-born Shakyamuni Buddha rises from its center, to be bathed in the spray from nine huge dragons as it rotates 360 degrees. It is a moving sight!
There are also life-sized temple models from other largely-Buddhist areas such as Tibet and Thailand.
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| The hand in the foreground is said to be the same size as the one on the giant statue. |
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| The baby Buddha about to be bathed by nine dragons |
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