Big Buddha, Big Buddha, Big Buddha

Buddhism

The city of Leshan, which is 75 miles south of Chengdu, is known for the Leshan Giant Buddha.  Onions and I started our climb to see the Buddha by visiting the "Oriental Buddha Capital," on the backside of the mountain of the Leshan Buddha.

After seeing these first Buddha's one ascends through a tunnel to another set of caves.

The final ascent....up the "Connecting Heart Stairs" Once I got to the top, I read a sign that all the, caves, statues and Buddha's are recently carved!  It was all a ruse.....Onions knew the entire time.

At the top....here's the Buddha head.

The Buddha is 233 feet night and you can the take the stairs down to the base, but the line waiting time to get to the stairs was approximately 3.5 hours.  Onions and I took a pass.

Instead, we took a boat ride to see it from the river.  The Buddha was started in 713 by a Chinese monk and was completed in 803.  It was originally started by the monk in hopes that the Buddha would calm the turbulent waters.  What ended up happening is that the rocks deposited from the carving altered the river flow and make the river water calmer.  There was, at one time a structure that protected the Buddha from the elements but was destroyed.