WEBVTT - The Buddha is a Mountain 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.119 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuffworks 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:14.560 dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:16.919 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.000 I want to start with a question that might sound 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:25.160 kind of simple. Why generally do we not build statues 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.240 of people who are still alive? I know sometimes we do. 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.640 You've got the Bronze Fonds. Yeah, and Henry Winkler is 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.040 still out there. And I believe in New Zealand there 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:39.000 is a statue of Richard O'Brien as riff Raff from 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.920 the Rocky Art Picture Show. And of course there's the 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.280 statue of RoboCop, which I don't know if I knew 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:47.560 about this one. No way, maybe that doesn't exist yet. 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.760 Maybe that's only people want there to be a statue 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.280 of RoboCop in Detroit, or does it exist. I'm not 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.520 sure if that's been realized. In any case, RoboCop lives 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:57.560 on in all our hearts forever, so they could never 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.880 be a statue of him. But even these are fictional characters, 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:02.760 even the Richard O'Brien. When is a picture of Richard 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.880 O'Brien as a fictional character? Yeah, there are a few 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:09.280 cases where people build statues of people who are still alive. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.040 It doesn't happen that often, and it always strikes me 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:18.320 as really just not smart and distasteful. I don't know 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:19.960 if you get the same feeling, like if you just 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:25.120 see a statue of a living person, It's like what, yeah, 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:27.320 I mean, because there are a few different factors that 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:29.559 coming to pay. First of all, if I'm asking someone 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.959 or commissioning a statue of myself, there there's something you know, 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.120 you're just asking for charges of narcissism. And uh, you 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:40.800 know you think you're a golden god or something because 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:45.399 you're having this large golden version of you erected in town. No, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.400 I just think I'm a marble god. Or on the 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.520 other side too, is we've seen enough. We've seen it. 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:53.760 We've seen enough examples of this throughout history, particularly in 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:55.600 the fall of the Soviet Union, to know that if 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:57.680 there is a statue of you, then that is something 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.760 that someone can deface or knock down. Uh, it's you're 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.360 just asking for it. Yeah. I would say. One large 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.240 exception to what I'm talking about is in like dictatorships, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.560 where yeah, there will be statues of a living leader, 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.160 but I mean, these are examples though, where they should 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.519 feel bad, but they are removed from the guilt of 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.600 feeling bad because of the depravity of the system. Yeah. 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.200 But so then you agree with my intuition there is 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.000 is that the case you You just think, like when 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:25.840 you see a statue of a person who's still alive, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.840 it's like, what, why would you do that? Yeah? Because 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.040 the other thing, too is maybe you're gonna have a 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.040 perfect likeness of that individual, but it also may come 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:36.160 off as a little creepy because you're gonna see it 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.120 like right next to the person, or or it's it's 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:41.400 easier to compare the flesh to the statue and realize 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.400 that the statue is inaccurate. Yeah. So what does the 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.560 answer there tell us about what purpose statues serve? I 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:49.320 don't know. Maybe we can come back to that. I 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:56.040 got another weird question. Why are statues considered inherently positive 0:02:56.160 --> 0:03:00.160 or honorific? Another way of asking this is why do 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.480 we generally only create statues of people we like? How 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.800 come we don't generally create statues of people who we 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:11.280 think we're evil and destructive or shifty or you know, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.880 just not honorable people? And it's one of those things 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.280 that's so ingrained that it just seems obvious, Like, well, duh. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:20.600 You know, you wouldn't put up a statute to honor 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.640 a bad person, But why do you assume a statue 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.760 carries honor with it? You don't assume that about other 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.560 forms of media. You could make a movie about a 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.280 bad person and people wouldn't assume that it was honoring 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.400 that person. You could write a book about a bad 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:38.520 person and people wouldn't assume that the book was honoring 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.120 that person. But if you were to build a statue 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.560 of that person, people would say, well, why do you 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:45.880 like this guy so much? Well, I think a lot 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:47.080 of this. I think we can answer a couple of 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.640 questions here by dealing with with the with the idea 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.760 of what happens when you just direct a tombstone for someone. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:58.680 You were creating something that is not going to fade. 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.880 I mean, yes, it's going to fade, but but within 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.920 the context of a human lifetime, it seems fixed. It 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:10.200 seems uh uh, you know, unmovable and incorruptible. And so 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.360 in to create a statue of an individual is to 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.720 create an immortal version of them, uh like, impose that 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.760 person's legacy on physical space right either after their death 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.120 or you know, in the case of say a mythological 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.360 figure or a figure of such deep history that they're 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:30.720 you know, far removed, like you don't have photos of them, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.719 you just have tales of them. It makes them more real, 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.960 you know. I mean, I I just wonder why. I mean, 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.480 it might it might be totally an accident of history. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.719 Maybe it's just a coincidence that Well, okay, so people 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.520 used to make statues of of leaders who were to 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.720 be honored, and statues of kings and all that, and 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:55.440 we just came to associate statuary with honor and honorific feelings. Well, 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:57.600 now I have to say there are of course protective 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.240 the idea of using horrifying but protect dive entities, say 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.240 in a tomb or a temple, you can have essentially 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:06.800 it's a monster, it's something horrifying, but it's there to 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.640 ward off evil spirits. Well, right, and that that comes 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:13.680 into the religious function of statutory So you've got statues 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.040 that where yeah, I was going to say that you 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.280 can imagine religious areas where people have statues of demons 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:25.839 and other unwelcome supernatural entities, either for instructive purposes, or 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:30.320 for protective purposes, you know, apotropaic magic um, or just 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.880 to be scary. Uh So, yeah, you can see religious 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.640 reasons why people put up statues of things judged to 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.720 be evil. But but could you imagine a scenario where 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:42.680 someone might say, look, we're not putting up a statue 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.919 of Richard Nixon, but we'll put up multiple Richard Nixon 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:50.320 statues to protect the sacred ground, you know, like like 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.479 purely protective evils. Uh if you will write you what 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.960 you bring up? Yet again, is this assumption if I 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.839 made a statue of Richard Nixon, people would assume I 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.800 liked him. People would assume I thought he was a 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.240 good guy. Right. Would not be the case if I 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.600 wrote a book about him or made a movie about him, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.440 I mean, depending on what the contents were. Right, And again, 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:13.479 this is assuming it's just a statue of him and 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.279 he's not being say, crushed under the foot of a 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:20.239 Hindu deity or something like that. Exactly right. That's another 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.240 great image because I think what we're talking about here, 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.480 and most of these examples, it's it's not a statue 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.160 of an individual of doing something as much as is 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:30.480 a statue of the individual, just their identity, their presence, 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.760 their existence. Yeah, and so maybe for some inherent reasons 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.200 we haven't figured out, or maybe for reasons of historical 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:42.200 accident or whatever, statue or I think does have a 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.240 religious connotation, and therefore it's no surprise that some of 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.600 the grandest statues in the world, of course are religious. Yeah, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:51.240 if you look at it at a list of the 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.760 largest statues currently in the world, most of them are 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.560 going to be religious in scope. You'll find a few 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.200 historic individuals in there, but really, like the top the 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.080 top ten list, are mostly Buddhists. And today we're gonna 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:10.280 be talking about one of the grandest Buddhas that you 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.720 have statutes that you'll find out there, and that is 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.200 the uh Lissan Grant, a giant Buddha or the Grand 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:21.720 Buddha located in southern Shishwan Province in southwest China. So 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:23.800 I thought it was interesting that you wanted to do 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:26.120 this episode, Robert, What what what? What was it that 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.920 drew you to the Leshan Buddha. Well, I'd seen images 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.200 of it before, and weirdly and weirdly enough to just 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:37.320 throw in an unintended plug for another podcast but I 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.640 was in the car and uh, I was listening to 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.720 the Wow in the World podcast, which is uh an 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:47.520 NPR science education podcast for children, and they had like 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.800 a kid throwing in a quick fact about something that 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:51.760 they learned on a trip. Right, so it's like a 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:53.800 you know, a kid on the street kind of situation. 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:58.040 And the kid mentioned the the leshaan giant Buddha, and 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.640 uh and it kind of reminded me of its existence 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.040 and and and one of the cool facts about it 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.040 that we'll get to in a bit and uh yeah, 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:06.600 And then I started looking into it a little more 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:08.640 and said, hey, well there's a whole episode here we 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.360 should talk about the lean giant Buddha. So if you 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.520 are at a computer right now and you are listening 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.239 to this episode where you can google something, you should 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.400 probably go ahead and google a picture of it right 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:21.320 to try to have this in your mind if you've 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.920 never seen it before. If you can't do that, that's okay. 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.280 We'll try to describe it for you. Yeah, we'll definitely 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:28.520 have some images of it on the landing page for 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:30.440 this episode is Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:36.720 But it looks like a giant Buddha has has carved 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.280 out a niche in a mountain and is seated there 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:45.439 within the mountain. So basically the the Buddha is a mountain. 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.800 The mountain is the Buddha to to steal like a 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.720 common slogan from the region, and the Buddha is literally 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:53.720 made out of the mountain. Its carved out of the 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.680 side of the mountain. But in a way that you 0:08:57.679 --> 0:08:59.319 know when when you when you I think for a 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.120 lot of Western it's just when you think of something 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:03.720 carved out of mountain, you think of our more local examples. 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.800 You think Amount Rushmore, maybe you think of Stone Mountain 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.559 here in Georgia, or you think of Crazy Horse, right. 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.440 But this one, this is this one feels a lot 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.560 different from any of those examples because it's it does 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.120 feel it almost feels like there was a Buddha in 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.080 the mountain and they just carved it out, like it 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.920 was waiting there for for all of this. Uh, this 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:29.080 sculpture work to free it. Absolutely, those other things you mentioned, 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.920 like Mount Rushmore feel very much imposed on the landscape. 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.200 There were a thing laid over the landscape. And I 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:41.800 feel like the Buddha in in Lashan is either it's 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:45.160 like it emerged from the landscape or is being absorbed 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:48.280 by the landscape. It almost feels like, yeah, you found it, 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:52.200 Like it's the like like it's a fossil Buddha. Yeah, 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.040 that's a great metaphor, dude, it is very much like that. 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:57.600 One thing we should say, though, is Okay, so you 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.560 imagine something that's carved out of a mountain or uh, 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.160 or might be like a fossil, you're probably not thinking 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:07.120 very big. This thing is big. It's huge. Yeah. It 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:11.120 is seventy one or two hundred and thirty three feet tall, 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.560 and it's it's you know, it's in a seated position. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:15.960 It's not standing. I actually I don't think I ran 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.440 across any estimates on how tall this Buddha would be 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.959 if it were standing full heights. Somehow should have done 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.920 the math on that missed opportunity. If the Ghostbusters were to, 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:27.840 you know, charge it with enough ectoplasm and make it 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.240 walk around. Yeah that but that's somebody else's research project. 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.160 Will leave them to it. Now. The other remarkable thing 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:35.720 about it is that this is a this is a 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.240 very old statue. Uh. This was this was a Tang 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:43.720 dynasty construction. So that's twelve hundred years ago, and it 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.960 is the largest stone Buddha in the world, and currently 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:52.040 it's the tallest statue in the world. UH. Number one, 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.440 by the way, is China's Spring Temple Buddha at a 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.559 towering one ty eight ms or four hundred and twenty feet. Now, 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.160 how many of those top twenty or so are Richard 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:06.120 Nixon's um, Not none of them actually, but several of 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:10.839 them are Buddhas or some of Bodhisatva's And I think 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:16.040 in one particular particular note is to fame Chinese emperors. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.320 But but also the vast majority of them are from 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:24.280 are from recent times. UH. Of the taller statues in 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.560 the world, all of them were completed in the century. 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:33.200 The Grand Buddha, however, again was finished in eight three CE. 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.040 And this thing looks old. As we said, it's like 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.320 a fossil. So it's a cliff coming straight out of 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.120 the river, just shooting straight up out of the Dadu 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.720 River and away from the it's like a red stone cliff. 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.840 You can see this orange tinge in the white uh. 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:55.280 And then back away from the cliff, there is this recession, UM. 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.480 And within the recession is I don't know, you don't 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:00.800 really see a throne or anything might be hidden back 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.319 there behind all of the growth that's come out over 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:05.920 the years. But you you do see the figure of 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.200 the Buddha seated with his knees spread apart, his back 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:13.040 very straight, and his hands resting on his knees, and 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.640 the entire statue, like we said, is carved into the 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:17.800 side of the mountain. We're seeding away from the cliff face. 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.520 And so the Buddha is looking out over the river 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.880 as if he's sort of like lording over the waters, 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.000 and the waters are rushing by just underneath his feet. 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:30.400 How would you describe his face, Robert, I would say 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:38.320 it's very calm. It's calm, serene, almost disinterested in a 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:40.360 way that he does remind me of a Y. M. C. 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:45.280 A lifeguard, Like he's watching over the waters and and 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.960 I'm not sure how interested he is in mean, not drowning. Yeah, 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.120 this is not one of the laughing Buddhas. And we'll 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:53.880 get into exactly what kind of Buddha he is in 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.360 a minute, but certainly that just the scale of this 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.840 thing is amazing from the photos. I have not been 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.080 to see this in person, and I would love to 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.199 hear from any of our listeners out there who have 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:08.080 because it is a huge tourist attraction. Uh, People traveling 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:09.440 to the area, you know, go out of their way 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.800 just to see this and the surrounding historic temple and 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.360 even you know natural attractions in the area. But you 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.160 just you look at this and you just see how 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:22.440 small the individuals are and in comparison to the feet 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.439 to the toes of the statute. Right, there are people 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.040 standing on the base where the Buddhist feet are and 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:32.720 they're not even as tall as the Buddhas sandal. Right. Uh. 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.200 You know, I think for Western audiences a specially, especially 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.520 for American audiences, Like when we think of a giant statue, 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:40.440 of course we think of the Statue of Liberty. But 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.319 then how big would the statue of Liberty be compared 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:47.400 to the Sun Buddha. Well, so there are multiple ways 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.280 you can measure the Statue of Liberty. Now, if you 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.680 measure the full thing, like with the base up to 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.640 the top of the torch, it's bigger than the Leshan Buddha. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:57.880 But if you just look at the copper part of 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.760 the statue from her heel to the top of her head, 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.240 Lady Liberty is just over a hundred and eleven feet, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.040 so if she put her arm down, you could stand 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.960 one Lady Liberty on the shoulders of another one and 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.120 still not be as tall as the Lashan Buddha. Now 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.640 it's it's always difficult to gauge these things though, just 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.600 as a viewer, because you see Lady Liberty up there, 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.360 you know, No, you don't see any humans really in 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.040 reference to it, unless you're dealing with the Ghostbusters and 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:29.600 Ghostbusters too. Otherwise it's easy to lose lose, you know, 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.800 scope of what it's scale is, whereas with the Lassan 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.440 Buddha you tend to see individuals at its base, so 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:37.320 you have kind of a grounding and how big it 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.440 appears to be. So this is supposed to be a Buddha, Robert, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:42.800 tell me about the Buddha, all right, Well, yeah, we 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:46.080 should break down exactly what a buddha is. So wait, 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:48.240 I thought you should say something like, I can't tell 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.360 you about the Buddha. Uh, yeah, I'm sure there's some 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.040 class like like, you know, if someone goes to tell 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:55.640 you about the Buddha, don't let them tell you about 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.360 the Buddha sort of if you meet the Buddha kill 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:02.480 the Buddha kind of a thing. But there are different Buddhists, 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.040 and that's an important thing to note. And it's easy 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.480 to miss, to to not be aware of if you 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:09.760 just kind of you see statues and you assume these 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:15.240 are all statues of the same individual, historic or mythical, 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:19.080 and it's just different artistic takes. And there are a 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.640 number of different artistic takes on these Buddhists. But for starters, 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.280 you have what's known as the historical Buddha, Siddharta Gottama, 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.360 who lived in the fifth century b c. Exact century 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.200 kind of varies depending on you know, who's telling, but 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:36.840 this would have been ancient India. And the story is 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:38.920 that he was a prince, you know, lived a life 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:44.400 of luxury, and then he began to behold the you know, 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:46.480 the sorrow of the world, the suffering in the world, 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.360 and he abandoned his riches. He became a monk in 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:54.360 order to seek enlightenment, and uh his teachings then spread 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.480 throughout most of Asia and the centuries to follow. Now, 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.760 interestingly enough, it actually declined in India self during the 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.640 Middle Ages with the rise of Islam, but it flourished elsewhere, 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.160 including in China, where it made its way in there 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.120 around a hundred b C. And subsequently became an integral 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.800 part of Chinese culture, and Buddhism today remains the fourth 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.280 largest religion in the world. Now, I think I have 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.760 to understand that throughout history, at different times, the adoption 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.840 of Buddhism in China has been a controversial thing, right, 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:30.520 Like there were times when when Chinese ruling dynasties were 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:34.040 trying to enforce other beliefs, like they might say that 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:38.600 people need to be Taoist or people need to be Confucian. Right, yes, certainly, 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.120 because when you when you look at the history of China, 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.160 of course, you have essentially three key world views that 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:45.400 are you know, getting into the mix. There you have 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.320 you have Buddhism, you have Taoism, and you have Confucianism 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.080 and UH. And it's kind of like a continual you know, 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.800 cocktail to what degree or these uh these mesh together 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.640 in an in an individual time, in an individual region. 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.640 Now to come back to the Shawan Buddha that what 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.280 makes this interesting is that the first Chinese Buddhist temple 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:09.720 was built in Sechuan Province on the summits of Mount Emmy, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.240 and this is the very area, the very region in 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.359 which the Grand Buddha was carved. Now, maybe we should 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.119 take a quick break and when we come back we 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.399 can get a little bit into the history of how 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:28.600 this Grand Buddha was constructed more than years ago. Thank alright, 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:33.000 we're back. So, uh, there's an origin story here, as 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.680 there always is. Yeah, and maybe we should say as 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.120 as many origins if you go back far enough, there's 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:41.880 a flood in the story somewhere, except in this case, 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.440 it's more of a pattern of flooding, right, and this 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.720 is a historical fact that's not just part of the mythology. 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.359 The central and southwest region of China is prone to 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.560 lots of flooding, right. Yeah. I mean we ended up 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.840 discussing some of this in our Great Flood episode. We 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.560 talked about Chinese the Chinese variant of the grate flood 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:05.080 myth and the importance of of water management and manipulation 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.760 in Chinese history. Yeah. So it's like a it's a 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.080 humid uh I think subtropical climate, but that they'll have 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.720 monsoon seasons, the rains come in and there there will 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.680 be heavy rains that cause flooding in these planes areas. 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.040 Refresh me a little bit on the on the Chinese 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.640 flood myth Robert. Oh, well, you're talking about the story 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.119 of You the Great, Yeah, where essentially you just have 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.240 you have this this flood that occurs and uh and 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.200 who is going to who's going to deal with it? 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:34.680 How are we going to to solve this problem? Instead 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:36.760 of the creation of an arc or you know, a 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:40.800 great boat, you have You the Great who uses uh, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.680 you know, the knowledge of canal systems and drainage systems 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.160 as a way to to manage the flooding. Oh, that's 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.560 a much better solution than a boat, right, Yeah, that 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.240 like works for more than one group of people. Yeah, 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.240 I think so. I think there's probably something culturally telling 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:58.320 about about that as well. Like it's a it's a 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.000 very it's a particularly Chinese uh take on the problem, 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.439 but also ties in with very real world issues of 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.640 the day, which would have been um, you know, seasonal flooding. Yeah. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.640 So there is seasonal flooding in this area that sometimes 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:14.879 the rivers will swell and this can be a danger 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:16.879 to the people who work in the in or around 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.199 the river. Um. And this this ties into where the 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.600 Buddha came from. That's right, So that the origin story, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.840 the basic version goes as follows. You have a Buddhist 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:30.879 monk named Hi Tongue and he conceives this this project 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:35.080 around seven thirteen CE. So his idea is, look, we 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.119 have we have really turbulent waters out here on the 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:43.840 Dadu River. Uh, it's really rough on on boatman navigation. 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.680 People are drowning. Uh, it's it's it's influenced by by 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:52.520 these seasonal floods. If we're we're to build a Buddha here, 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.760 then that would bring like fortune to the area, Like 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.920 that would bring a calming influence on on these turvy 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.680 went waters where you ultimately have the confluence of of 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.600 three different rivers, the Nanjang, the dad and the Queen 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.360 Ye rivers. Yeah, And in reading about this, I came 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:14.840 across what appears to be some kind of popular legend 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.440 about Hi Tong's quest to get the Buddha build This 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.320 was good, so I had to repeat it, but I 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:21.399 want to, but I want to stress this is the 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.879 best I can synthesize from scattered and discrepant telling. So 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.959 this is probably probably legendary, might not even be an 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:30.679 old legend. Who knows if this was created recently, but 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:34.560 here's what people are saying. So Hi Tong in this 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:36.760 story knew that it would cost a lot of money 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.199 to get the Buddha built, and he traveled far and 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:44.440 wide soliciting alms for the construction, and slowly, over time 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:46.800 he built up a fund. He managed to get together 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.359 enough money for the stone works and the carving. But 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.000 at some point in the project, Hi Tong was called 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.560 to an audience with a corrupt government official with a 0:20:55.680 --> 0:21:00.320 Richard Nixon, you know who told him Hi Tong, it's 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.240 time to hand over the funds, and Hi Tong said, 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.720 I'd rather give up my eyes than give up the 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.879 Great Buddha. And when the corrupt official pressed him to 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.199 give him the money, Hi Tong gouged out his own eyes, 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.239 or one of his own eyes and threw them at 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.240 the officials feet, and supposedly this got the guy to 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:21.280 leave him alone. Now again with my morning. I've seen 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.719 various versions of this story told and retold across sources, 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.080 but I can't locate an authoritative original source from this. 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:31.639 So I'm going to file this under probably legendary, whether 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.960 it's an old legend, or a recent creation is unclear, 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:37.520