Day 16: Giant Buddha and Sword

We had been running a lot in the past week. It felt like half our days had been spent either on a bus or in an airport, so I was greatly looking forward to our three nights in Chengdu. Finally a few days to chill and just sightsee without all the traveling.

We met the group at the usual 9am meeting time where our local guide told us it was going to be a two and a half HOUR drive to see the big Buddha. Yaaaaay another day spent on a bus. We were going to visit the giant Leshan Buddha statue, carved straight into the mountain side and sitting at more than 70 meters high. On the way he told us the story of the statue which turned out to be a lot more interesting than the statue itself.

Leshan is a city located right where three rivers meet. Some thousand years ago a monk lived on top of one of the mountains overlooking the rivers. There was a spot where there must have been and underwater whirlpool because many boats would get stuck in that same spot and crash against the rocks. The monk watched this tragedy happen over and over again. One day he decided something needed to be done against the danger of the river. Being a monk he decided that carving a giant Buddha would help give the boats protection as they passed through that area. He went off and spent several years raising money to build his Buddha. When he finally collected enough he went back home and went to the county official for permission to carve in the side of the mountain. But the warlord was a greedy man and demanded some of the money for himself. The monk refused and the warlord said he would not give his permission unless the monk either gave him the money or his eyes. Without hesitation, the monk reached up and tore out one of his eyes and presented it to the warlord. Shocked and scared, the warlord gave his permission to build the Buddha. It took over 90 years to complete the sitting Buddha over 200 feet high, and once it was completed the river calmed and never again did the rocks claim a boater’s life.

Giant Buddha in Leshan

The science behind the conclusion is actually the hundreds of tons of rocks that were thrown into the river during the construction of the Buddha most likely filled the whirlpool hole or altered whatever was causing the problem in the first place. But hey, it worked.

We spent approximately 5 minutes admiring the Buddha. It was indeed impressive but for a two and a half hour drive it hardly seemed worth it. There were cliffs all around the Buddha, stairs and walkways built right into the side of the mountain, I would have loved to explore around the area, but alas, we didn't even get to walk up close to it. We only saw it from a boat on the river.

On the way back we got to stop at one of the most gorgeous little villages I’ve ever seen. It had a stream running through the middle of town down to the river so there were trees, bushes and little carvings that lined the entire town. It was beautiful. This was where Ryan got his sword. Yep. We often saw swords for sale and Ryan picked out this big beautiful sword for 190yuan ($30 or so). It was only after he paid for it that he wondered how he was going to transport it home…stay tuned for that story.

Dinner was a collection of “snacks” which were all delicious and left our table littered with dozens of little bowls. It was a wonderful meal and very amusing. 

Day 25: Markets and Ducks

Our last official day in China. We visited a local lama temple. It was originally designed as a palace for a prince in the Qing dynasty then converted into a religious temple some years later. It wasn’t the most exciting place we visited on our trip. The architecture was nothing new and we had seen Buddha statues before. It was fun though, in the middle of one courtyard they had a statue people could throw money on. It was designed in the shape of a mountain and it had intricate carvings, on the bottom represented Earth, the middle top was heaven and the very top was a temple that represented the highest level of heaven. People would toss coins and where ever it landed was where your next life would be. Ryan threw a coin and it landed on the very top part of the divine heaven. I tossed a coin and I was happy it managed to land on the lower part of heaven but as it hit the pile it knocked two other coins off…Oops.

Ever since we visited the first temple and I saw the people praying with the incense I had been dying to try it myself. Buddhism was actually my first “religion” growing up. It was the first one that really made sense to me and I got very much into trying to create a zen lifestyle. As we passed one of the kiosks where people prayed I saw two incense sticks in the garbage. It made sense since you were supposed to have three, you can’t pray properly with just two. But I picked them up, and as I did an older Asian gentleman instantly handed me another one so I could have a complete set of three. Super excited I lit my sticks on fire. I bowed three times in each direction as I addressed the different levels of buddhas and I asked for guidance. When I was done I tossed the sticks into the open fire. I felt fantastic.

In the afternoon we visited the Silk markets. It was a five story indoor mall made entirely out of independent kiosk sellers. This place was huge and consisted of every single thing you could ever want. I wasn’t really a fan though. They were used to tourists so they were more pushy than other places we had been (don’t go to the shoe section downstairs, those people literally grab you as you walk by) and it was actually more expensive than other vendors we had been to in the smaller towns. Even so, it was our last day and we still had money to burn. I bought a nice tea pot and Ryan got some toys.

Dinner was special for our last evening. We had the infamous Peking Duck China is known for. It was delicious and we said our official goodbye to our Wendy Wu Father, Gump. We had taken up a collection for him and he was very embarrassed to take our generous tip but he deserved all of it and more. I’ve already sung his praises but I’ll say it again, he took care of us like we really were family and none of us will ever forget his kindness. 

Chef preparing Peking Duck