In recent years, I have been able to admire huge buddhist statues while traveling. However, this is not the first time that I admire such a statue. I had already been able to visit the large Buddha statue in Kamakura in Japan in 1975. The Great Buddha of Kamakura (鎌倉大仏 Kamakura Daibutsu) is located on the grounds of a buddhist temple of the Jōdo sect, which is called Kōtoku-in (高徳院). It is a large bronze statue of Amitābha, which has been cast in 1252 (Kamakura period). The statue measures 13.35 metres tall [1]. And yes, I scanned in an old slide of 1975.
But now I want to talk more about the statues at the southern rim of the Himalaya plateau in Bhutan, Sikkim, and Ladakh. How should you call something like that? Maybe religiotainment? Surely these statues are put up to attract tourists, both international and national. For buddhists, there is always a temple in the base of the figures, in which, for example, the life story of Shakyamuni is presented, or there are over a hundred thousand Buddha figures there. It is definitely a place of worship. But it is also a place, where you can walk in a park, where the family can have fun. I imagine that especially middle-class buddhist families will be attracted to it, who want to spend a few nice hours there. In addition, of course, there are also international tourists who might show lesser interest in buddhism. But for them there are souvenir shops that are readily used. The religious tourists, the eco-spiritists, aren't attracted to that; they want authenticity. They go into the hidden temples to worship their mysticism there.
Let's start in the East with the Buddha Dordenma Statue in Kuenselphodrang, Thimphu, Bhutan. The Great Buddha Dordenma has been erected to celebrateing the 60th anniversary of the fourth king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck. I is a gigantic Shakyamuni Buddha statue in a pak [2]. The statue is made of bronze an gilded with gold as are 100,000 8-inch-tall and 25,000 12-inch-tall Buddha figures inside. It stands 52 m tall. The Bhutanese hope that it will spread preace and happiness. If you search the internet for more information, like I just did, there was no information about the female figures around the statue. You'll find pictures but they are just called buddhist goddesses or dakinis. Jigme Tenzin drew my attention to the term vajra goddesses as described in the Longchen Nyingtik, a Nyingma cycle of teachings and practices discovered by the great scholar Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798).
The next statue is located in Sikkim. In the Buddha Park near the village of Ravangla stands the 40 m high Buddha statue, called Tathagata Tsal. One can go up several floors inside the statue and see the murals depicting the life of Shakyamuni (the spellchecker wanted to fix this into life of Shakira, but I knew better). The life of Shakyamuni can also be seen in the film Little Buddha starring Keanu Reeves and Bridget Fonda [3]. The film was shot in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, but also in Bhutan (Paro Dzong).
I visited another statue in Sikkim, near Pelling – the Chenrezig Statue including a skywalk. The statue stand at an altitude of 2,195 m above sea level and maesures 42 m [4]. Chenrezig is Tibetan for what might be known better in Sanskrit, as it is Avalokiteshvara, the boddhisattva of compassion.
Last of these statues I had seen in Ladakh. It has been the statue of the Maitreya Buddha in the Nubra valley overlooking the Shyok river. It stands 33 m tall. Maitreya Buddha is the future Buddha, the fifth and final of this kalpa (Sanskrit term for the time of a universe between creation and annihilation or more positively said the recreation as a new universe).
Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dtoku-in
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Dordenma_statue
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Buddha
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenrezig_statue_and_skywalk
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