A big, wet Buddha
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
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109
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Leshan,
China
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Ergo, we were up early and making our way to the bus station in an attempt to catch a bus to Leshan, home of the world's most giant Buddha. (This is what Travis delights in calling it and is a reference to JD and Turk's escapades with an oversized lab coat in the TV show Scrubs, an excellent show and apparently rather true to life as we discovered from an intern on vacation in Rio who even drives a scooter to work
carvings on the cliffs
. Go figure.)Our timing was rather excellent and remained so all day. We bought our ticket to Leshan and were on the road 15 minutes later. Upon arrival at said city we hopped right on the bus (number 3, in case you wondered) that takes us directly to the park, and the load of friendly Chinese on the bus with us even told us when to get off and pointed us in the direction of the park entrance. The tickets aren't cheap, but we decided to bypass the extensive park grounds and saved a few bucks and probably a lot of wetness. Sichuan (the province) was in the mood to rain pretty constantly from the time we arrived to the time we left.
LP says to avoid the park on public holidays and weekends. We just so happened to arrive on the day after New Year and a Friday. I believe that the rain helped us out, but it was still blatantly obvious that there are, in fact, a billion Chinese in China. Travis complained a lot, mostly because the queue to get to the bottom of the Buddha was really long and really wet. We made it eventually.
The giant Buddha was carved into a cliff where three rivers converge in the southern end of Leshan
dragon pool
. Before the Buddha the waters were terribly harsh and attempts to travel on them often resulted in death. Seeing this, a monk decided that he would construct a Buddha whose presence would calm the waters and save lives. The monk died before the project was completed, but it was carried on faithfully by his student-followers. At it happens, the Buddha did result in a calming of the waters because of all the rock from the carving that fell into the river and reshaped it (not on the surface). Apparently the locals will argue and aver that it is the presence of the Buddha and not any sort of scientific explanation that resulted in a calming of the waters. First we saw the Buddha's curly hair. It's a strange sight. Then we saw the Buddha, carved in a rather cylindrical fashion, but with a serene expression that somehow managed to make me feel serene also. Perhaps the locals aren't all wrong. From the lookout around the Buddha's head you can see...the Buddha's head. Stretching over the railing you can see his hands, but his feet are way too far down. I believe he's over 80 m tall. I know for sure that his big toe is 8.5 meters long all by itself. Big Buddha. The rock is quite porous, so it's not a perfect Buddha, but that doesn't detract from its magnificence. When I stretched over the railing I could also see the precarious staircase down the cliff that would take us to the Buddha's feet
dragon pool 2
. It was full of people. We decided to bite the bullet and get in the queue. The staircase zigged and zagged down the cliff, bringing the Buddha into sight at different levels. It was really neat, but officials kept us moving, so there was no opportunity to stop and take a lot of photos, though I think Trav got a couple nice ones. The stairs were really small and slick. I really don't like stairs, and I like wet ones even less.
At the bottom of the Buddha it was almost difficult to make out his head, but I think this was more due to a combination of clouds and backlighting than height. From the top of the Buddha I swore that the toes could not possibly be 8.5 m long, but when I was finally down next to them I changed my mind. Just the height of the toe was about half my height (I'm 5'6"). It was pretty nifty, I must say. I was quite taken with his toes for some inexplicable reason.
Our next goal was to get on a boat and see the Buddha from the water. This would probably be a better photo angle and would also give us the opportunity to see the two guardians carved into the cliff next to him that can only be seen from a boat or the "island" in the middle of the river. I put it in quotes because it's little more than a glorified sand bar and is in all liklihood completely imersed during high water, considering that it's a flat pile of dirt. The journey took us to a nifty and picturesque fishing village where you can see your lunch before you eat it because it's swimming in a bucket on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. There were also river turtles. I don't think I could ever eat a turtle
crouching tiger
. Poor things. At the village all we found was a bridge that appears to have been transported out of time and anachronistically plopped into modern China. It was absolutely beautiful. But there were no boats. After walking all over the park and finding not even a path leading to the water, we decided to give up and catch the bus back to the bus station. Our journey was further complicated by the fact that you must exit via the East Gate. Not only did said gate seem horribly out of the way, but it also led we knew not where. An attempt to get out the North Gate resulted in a scold, but at least when we turned toward the East Gate we were walking along the road we knew. The East Gate let us out onto the road, so we needn't have worried, and we managed to catch both of our requisite buses in no time at all.
Travelling independently always seems like everything is going to go wrong and you'll get horribly lost, but then it always seems to work out, and it's excellent fun in the process.
Tomorrow we go see the pandas!
Erin
