Hangzhou Buddhas

A friend of mine (yeah, that's you RM) once told me that you cannot call something a collection until you have at least three of them. So here is my latest collection. Yesterday RD, JD and I left for Hangzhou for the day on the high speed train from Shanghai. Impressive ride that takes only a little over an hour to get you to a totally different city.

Hangzhou, according to the tour guide we picked up at the train station, is famous for two things: tea and silk. He however added that West Lake in fourth on the list of ten famous places in China. Successive emperors in various dynasties came to Hangzhou's West Lake to rest. We took a 40 minute tour of the lake. I won't be posting photos of that part of the day- it was too hazy to get good photos, and the scale of the lake prevents photographers with my skill level from being able to get good shots. An aerial view however, would be the best way to get the scale of the lake.


What I will entertain you with here today is the collection of buddha photos that I took. We went to Lingyin Temple grounds- Temple of the Soul's Retreat in English. Not exactly a peaceful place as it was filled with Chinese tourists. It is an exceptionally large place with loads of images of buddha carved into the hills as well as the largest free standing Buddha in China.


It was an amazing place!! I have never seen so many carved images in one place before. According to the book, there are 470 of them- I did not see that many, and so my collection is slightly smaller- and they date back to the 10th and 14th century. They line the creek side and there are paths that lead to them. There are also some in caves. So now I am hooked, and may (sigh...) have to travel around China to some of the other carved Buddha sites- just for my collection you know.