"The Grand Buddha"

26th December 1991

Got up at 6.00am as Amy and I had decided to go to see the village of Lèshãn, which we have read is suppose to have the largest Buddha image in the world. We figured it would be worth the four hour bus ride to get there. Our first problem was to make sure that we had the right bus as we were the only non-Chinese speaking people around at that time of the morning. It posed quite a problem. Once we were actually on the correct bus, we found the seats to be very cramped and this made the journey most uncomfortable. We assumed this was due to the fact that the Chinese are such a ’short’ race in general so they build their public transport system to accommodate them accordingly.

Still the journey gave Amy and I plenty of time to talk to one another about life and her plans for the future, and of course my plans for the future.

The Grand Buddha.(Dàfó)

The statue is seventy one metres high and is carved into the cliff face overlooking the Dadu and the Min rivers which means the best place to view it is probably from a boat, (something we did not have). The ears are seven metres long and we could have had a picnic on it’s big toe nail as it measured almost two metres across and it’s big toe was eight and a half metres long.

This huge project was started in 713 AD and was engineered by a Buddhist monk called Haitong who organised funds and hired workers to build the statue which took ninety years to complete. The reason for the construction was that below the place where the Buddha now sits, was a ’hollow’ where boatmen used to vanish in the fast flowing currents. Haitong hoped that the presence of the Buddha would protect the boatmen from the swift current, and subdue the flow of the river, and believe it or not it actually worked! This was not because of any mystical powers the statue may hold, but was due to the fact that the rock which had been carved from the cliff face was tipped into the river at the foot of the statue, and so altering the flow and current strength and filling in the hollow into which the boatmen used to be sucked. Unfortunately Haitong died before his life long project had been completed, but he would not have been able to see the finished work of art anyway, as he gouged out his own eyes in a effort to prevent the funds getting into the hands of the authorities!

Inside the body of Dàfó is an intricate water drainage system which was designed to stop erosion of the statue over many years, however, today the statue is showing signs of decay and a huge rebuilding programme is being talked about as there are fears that the whole thing could one day collapse due to soil erosion.

It rained the whole day and we got fairly wet, but it was worth it to see the statue and the town which was really nice as well. We thought that it appeared as though it was reasonably unspoilt and everyone was quite friendly towards us.

By the time we got back to Chéngdú it was 9.00pm so we went straight to see Mr.Lee, who was going to get us train tickets for tomorrow morning for my next destination which is Kúnmíng in the Yùnnán province. As usual Mr.’fixit’ came up with the goods and charged us an extra 20Y (£2.00) to get the Chinese priced tickets which cost 110Y (£11.00) in total.

At 10.00pm I had an excellent telephone call to Michelle, it was really great to talk to her and for once it was in a private telephone kiosk so we were able to talk for a reasonable length in private. She sounded really well and it gave me a huge high for the rest of the night.

What we did next seemed like a good thing at the time, however, with hindsight, I wish I had just gone to bed with a cup of coffee. Amy and I were starving after our day out together and decide to go to a Sichuãn ’hot-pot’, something that this region of China is famous for so we could not possibly pass the region with out trying one could we? (God!, do I wish I had!). We found a restaurant that looked reasonably clean and one that was busy with local Chinese people, something that we thought would mean value for money and good food. The expense of the meal did not matter, the only important thing was that we were going to have the famous hot-pot. The first problem as always was the language as no-one spoke any English, so we just pointed to the food that the other people had and indicated that we wanted the hot-pot dish, which was a large ’wok’ that sat on a burner flame on the table to heat the oil inside so we could cook our own food. Once again with hindsight we probably should have got up and gone when we saw the ’state’ of the oil in the wok, it looked as if it had not been changed since the Ming dynasty!!! The waiter then brought over bowls of raw meat and uncooked vegetables for us to cook in the hot bubbling oil. The first bowl of meat to be delivered to us looked like the complete brain of an animal which we were expected to pull apart and deep fry in the oil. At the risk of being sick there and then we gave the bowl away to some Chinese on the next table who could not believe their luck, as they dived into the bowl and soon devoured the contents in a matter of minutes. The next dish prepared for our appetite was full of raw snakes which had been gutted and skinned (probably alive knowing the Chinese), and although they still had a fair amount of blood on I thought that I would try one, just to see what it would taste like. After carefully cooking it, I fished it out of the oil together with other things that were at the bottom of the wok and put it in my mouth.....It was so bloody hot I had to spit it out almost straight away, much to the amusement of our fellow diners on the next table. By now some vegetables had arrived which Amy had ordered and I managed to eat most of them with Amy, but I was the only one to try any meat of any description. We could not eat much really because of the chilli heat of the oil and the lack of appetising food to cook, so we paid for what we had eaten and given away, and went back to the hotel to get our back-packs re-packed and to get to bed, as we had to be up early to catch the 6.50am train to Kúnmíng, in the Yùnnán province tomorrow

Read Neils complete adventure here.