After 8 months of waiting I was finally able to visit the
Grand Buddha at Ling Shan, located about an hour bus ride outside of the city of
Wuxi, which is about a 15 min train north of Suzhou. I had heard about the "giant" Buddha shortly after I arrived in China. A student in Zhangjiagang had offered to take me but could never find the time to actually go.
So I was quite excited when one of the students, Sunny, here offered to go with me. She was great about it too; making all the arrangements, which was good since I don't speak Chinese and would have a really hard time figuring any of it out. We went this past Sunday (after church of course) and the reported rain never ended up happening so it was a nice day to spend outside, sight seeing.
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| One the bus with Sunny |
Along with the Buddha there are several traditionally built buildings, The Brahma Palace and art museum, the "Five-Signet" Palace and another building I never got the name of.
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The Brahma Palace and Art Museum
The Brahma Palace and art museum is the largest of the building and has a grand hall, performance theatre, restaurant and art museum. We watched a short performance about the life of Buddha with 180 degrees screen, dancers, and a full size tree coming out of the center of the room depicting Buddha reaching enlightenment.
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| Sunny and I outside the Palace |
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| Inside the palace |
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| The booties I had to wear while inside the building |
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| Ceiling decorations |
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| Colorful glass wall |
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| Brahma ceiling, it turned different colors |
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| Me and my Chinese zodiac sign, I'm a "pig". |
Across from the Brahma Palace is the Five Signet palace, surrounded by a koi filled lake. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to go inside of it but from the outside it was still very beautiful.
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| Five Signet Palace |
I wasn't able to get the name of the white building but we were told it was just a shell and didn't have anything in it. It reminded me more of a middle eastern building than Chinese.
Besides the Big Buddha there was an actual size replica of the open palm right hand of that is on the big Buddha and a large statue of the fat "Happy Buddha" with children running all over him. Both are pretty massive and represented different stages in Buddha's evolution. I personally like the "Happy Buddha" the best, but who wouldn't love a giant smiling Buddha.
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| Me next to the big hand |
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The symbol in the center represents a "wish" ,
wishing the world happiness and welfare |
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| My hand compared with the Buddha's |
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| "Happy" Buddha |
The Grand
Buddha is the 8th largest Buddha in the world at 88m tall (about 290 ft) and although it's not ancient is quite impressive. It sits at the top of a large staircase and is standing surrounded by
lotus petals. There is a platform below him and also one that is in the lotus leaves.
Each hand has the "wish" sign and there is a correctly facing swastika in the center of his chest. The swastika is an ancient symbol that can represent solemnity, virtue, well-being and good luck.
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| Us under the Buddha |
There were signs saying that you could pay to "hug" Buddha's leg but since it was so close to closing we were able to sneak up there without anyone noticing.
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| My hand compared to his big toe nail |
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| Me standing next to his foot |
Despite what people think, I am not living a crazy and adventurous life; it's actually pretty mundane most of the time. But it was great to get out and have another Chinese experience. Makes me appreciate living in this beautiful, history rich country.
