Two Buddhas, seen in the grottoes at Xingguo Temple on Qianfo Shan ("Thousand-Buddha Mountain") in Ji'nan, Shandong. The temple is located about halfway up the hillside. Aside from several halls with some fine statues, there are numerous small grottoes with statues carved into the native rock.
Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, August 31, 2025
These small Buddhas are waiting to be placed in a repainted 10,000 Buddha Hall at Tiantai Temple on Jiuhuashan, Anhui. The highest temple (though not the highest peak) on Jiuhua, Tiantaisi is said to be where the Korean monk Jin Qiaojue built his hut when he came up the mountain to practice in 719.
Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, August 14, 2025
The buildings at Yuanming Jiangtang in Shanghai look like office buildings, but some fine statues inside include this Jade Buddha. It was founded in 1934 as a study center by Master Yuanying of Ningbo's Tiantong Temple. Yuanying was also the first chairman of the Chinese Buddhism Association.
Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, August 6, 2025
When I visited Jing'an Temple, Shanghai, in August 2009, it was just being rebuilt. On a later visit at the start of 2012, although the temple was not finished, I saw this silver Buddha on the altar in the Main Hall. It's said to stand nearly 29 feet tall and weigh a whopping 15 tons. (Note the size of the people!)
Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, July 14, 2025
Vairocana Buddha and attendants in the main hall at Bishan Temple, Wutai Shan, Shanxi. Bishan means "Jade (or Green) Mountain," but it may be a play on an older name, Beishan; Bishan is the furthest north (bei) of any temple in the valley where Wutai's only town, Taihuai, is located.
Posted to Reddit and Bluesky, June 26, 2025
The Ascetic Shakyamuni at Baoguang Temple, Chengdu, Sichuan, is a plain gray carved panel showing the Buddha-to-be when he mistakenly thought that mortifying the body would lead to enlightenment--and did so for six years. He later realized that the truth lay in "the Middle Way" between asceticism and the luxury in which he had been raised. ("hand" colored in PhotoShop)
Posted to Reddit et al, May 30, 2025
The Jade Buddha in a spectacular setting on the main altar at Tiantang Temple on Tianma Mountain, Fu'an, Fujian. I was told by the monk who brought me there that the characters on the wall behind are "a sutra," but he didn't say which one.
Posted to Reddit et al, May 20, 2025
Bronze Shakyamuni Buddha at Xiangshan Temple, Luoyang, Henan, near the Longmen Grottoes. This is a reconstruction of a famous ancient temple--but the reconstruction dates to the Qing dynasty! (Most of it is much newer, however). It's across the river from the majority of the grottoes at Longmen.
Posted to Reddit et al, May 19, 2025
These exquisite figures of Vairochana Buddha are part of the impressive collection at Longxing Temple, Zhengding, Hebei. He is the "Great Sun Buddha" and my personal favorite.
Posted to Reddit et al, March 30, 2025
In January 2012, one of my former students (at a Buddhist college) was installed as abbot of Kaiyuan Temple in Wuxi. Another student took my wife and me to see this stunning statue of Amitabha at Lingshan, standing 88 meters (289 feet) including the 9m lotus pedestal. Note the people on the stairs!
Posted to Reddit et al, March 16, 2025
The Great Buddha of Kamakura. This colossal figure of Amitabha Buddha is 13.35 meters (43.8 ft) tall including the base. Completed around 1252, it resided in a series of destroyed and rebuilt wooden halls until a tsunami swept the last one away in 1498. It has sat in the open air ever since.
Posted to Reddit et al, March 8, 2025
Posted to Reddit et al, February 21, 2025
A Jataka ("Birth") tale tells of the Buddha-to-be in a previous birth giving his life to save a starving tigress and her cubs. This watercolor by 20th-century Chinese artist Guan Shanyue is a copy of the scene in ancient Mogao Cave Temple 428 near Dunhuang, Gansu, China. The copy was made in 1943.
Guan Shanyue (1912-2000) was a painter and educator from Guangdong, and associated with the Lingnan School of Chinese painting. In 1943 he visited the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, Gansu, where--with his wife and son holding candles--he copied nearly a hundred Buddhist murals in just over a month.
Posted to Reddit et al, February 13, 2025
The Huayan Triad ("Three Saints of the Huayan") has Piluzhena/Vairochana Buddha in the center, with Wenshu/Manjushri Bodhisattva on the left and Puxian/Samantabhadra Bodhisattva on the right (the positions of the two bodhisattvas are more often reversed). Longchang Temple, Jurong, Jiangsu, China.
Posted to Reddit et al, February 4, 2025
When I approached this collection of headless statues at Longxing Temple, Zhengding (Shijiazhuang), Hebei, I burst into tears! This "temple" is actually a government-run museum, no longer an active temple. It gathers statuary from temples that are going to be (or have been) destroyed, so it's quite a collection. I suspect these guys were victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
Posted to Reddit et al, February 3, 2025
At this solstice time we remember the Great Sun Buddha (Vairochana Buddha, Dari Rulai, Dainichi Nyorai) the body of the universe, from whom all things--including all Buddhas--arise; the "ground of being"; the source of all phenomena; the interdependence that underlies all existence. Just like the sun!
Posted to Reddit et al, December 23, 2020
