Big Buddha's Watching

Byline: Compiled by Charles Legge

QUESTION In 2000, the Mail ran an article about the proposed construction of a 500ft Buddha in the Indian city of Bodh Gaya. Was it completed? THERE is a long tradition of celebrating the life of the Buddha with monumental statues, and the earliest and greatest of these were the Buddhas of Bamiyan in the Hazarajat of Afghanistan.

These were the giant standing Buddhas Vairocana and Sakamuni that were 180ft and 121ft (55m and 37m) high respectively.

The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, with details modelled in mud mixed with straw and coated in stucco. But in a staggering act of vandalism, they were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, who declared they were 'idols'.

Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in the Indian state of Bihar. It's famous as the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment.

As one of the key stops on the Buddhist pilgrimage, in the early Eighties it was decided to build a monumental statue there. Carved from sandstone and red granite, the completed structure stands at 82ft …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Big Buddha's Watching. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Daily Mail (London). Publication date: October 9, 2012. Page number: 57. © 2007 Daily Mail. COPYRIGHT 2012 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.