James Baquet

    jamesbaquet@gmail.com

    IN January of 2012 I was privileged to be invited to speak at the installation of the new abbot at Kaiyuan Temple in Wuxi. He had formerly been my student at a Buddhist academy, and wanted international representatives on his big day.

    His publicity officer was also a young monk who had been a student of mine. He insisted on showing us around, which led to one of the most amazing sites I have ever visited.

    This was the Lingshan Grand Buddhist Scenic Area.

    The centerpiece of the 30-hectare park is the 88-meter Great Buddha at Lingshan. A standing Amitabha Buddha, it has one hand raised in the “Fear Not gesture,” and the other lowered in the “Boon-Giving gesture.”

    Just one hand is 11.7 meters high and 5.5 meters wide! You can stand in front of a replica in a square below the statue.

    Also on the grounds are numerous structures. One of these, usually translated as the Brahma Palace, is actually meant to represent a kind of heaven.

    Another interesting feature is the Nine Dragons Bathing Shakyamuni. This is a closed mechanical lotus blossom 7.2 meters high; five times a day music plays, the lotus opens, and a gilded statue of the newly born Shakyamuni Buddha rises from its center, to be bathed in the spray from nine huge dragons as it rotates 360 degrees. It is a moving sight!

    There are also life-sized temple models from other largely Buddhist areas such as Tibet and Thailand.