Blog Archives

ETERNAL SPLENDOUR IN STONE – THE STORY OF THE LESHAN BUDDHA – by Bernard VanCuylenburg. PROLOGUE. This story is about a Monk, a Buddha, and two rivers, which had its genesis over 1500 years ago in Leshan China, on a cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Dadu and Min rivers. Before I get to the crux of this article, some context by reference to the two statues of the Buddha in the Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan is timely. The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in 2001 signalled the loss of a priceless legacy to humanity, and dealt a fatal blow to the cultural sensitivities of the world. One statue stood 180 ft tall, and the other was 124 ft. Both statues over 2000 years old stood in an area which was a holy site for Buddhists, on the ancient trading route between China and Europe known as The Silk ...