Discover Sichuan. Leshan Giant Buddha 樂山大佛 & Emeishan 峨眉山 (Episode 7)

Buddhism occupied an important position in China’s social life. The Leshan Giant Buddha is one of the manifestations of the importance of Buddhism.

There are two different tour routes offered to witness the Giant Buddha. Taking a 30-minute boat ride on the river to see the panorama view or hiking 2 hours above closely seeing the head to toe of the Giant Buddha. We opted for the boat ride to avoid lining up hiking the stairs.

There is a short walk upon disembarking the shuttle. There are trishaw services for those who do not want to walk.

Originally carved around 713 AD during the ancient Tang Dynasty and its completion took 90 years. Leshan Giant Buddha sitting at the confluence of three rivers (Min River, Qingyi River and Dadu River) once was built to quell catastrophic floods and pray for the welfare of common people.

The 71-meter-tall Leshan Giant Buddha is a UNESCO World Natural & Cultural Heritage and the world’s biggest and highest stone-carved Buddha statue with over 1,300 years’ history.

Mount Emei is one of the “Four Great Buddhist Mountains in China” for its profound Buddhist culture. In 1996, it was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for both cultural and natural heritages.

Emeishan is located 50km west of Leshan Giant Buddha.

We head towards Mount Emei in the afternoon and plan to stay overnight on the mountain. We took a bus from the Emeishan Tour Passenger Transport Centre and the ride took an hour to reach half way up the hill, with a brief stop in-between the ride.

Visitors are expected to walk on steps for about 35 minutes before boarding the rope-way that took just 3 minutes to the top of Emeishan. So, it is better to take only what you need for a night stay in a backpack, instead of bringing the entire luggage.

It was already late when we reached and so we merely wandered around the accommodation area, and looked forward to sunrise and cloud sea the next morning, besides visiting the temples.

The morning was misty and unfortunately the sun was elusive as well. So, no sunrise and cloud sea treat for the day.

The Golden Summit (金顶) is the essence of Mount Emei for it enjoys the exquisite giant gold statue of Samantabhadra or Puxian Buddha (普贤菩萨), which is 48 m high and designed with delicate patterns.

The statue has ten heads facing ten different directions in three layers, which symbolises those Buddhas in previous, present, future life and ten practices and wishes of Puxian Buddha.

01:42 Leshan Giant Buddha
02:37 Emeishan
05:32 Emeishan Golden Summit

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