Snapshot: The Largest Buddha in the World (& Other Superlatives)

Updated (6/6): Planning a trip to Leshan? Check out my Leshan travel guide for more information.

Visiting the largest stone Buddha statue in the world in Leshan, outside of Chengdu, made us wonder about other “superlative Buddhas” around Asia. As it turns out, many, many places claim to have the tallest, largest, or oldest statues — albeit with plenty of qualifiers. You could organize an entire Asian tour around visiting the largest seated wooden Buddha, the oldest bronze standing Buddha, the smallest Buddha with the largest wardrobe, etc. Here are a few places to start:

• Tallest Buddha: The unremarkable county of Lushan in Henan Province constructed the 128-m Spring Temple Buddha in 2001. It’s made of copper, weighs 1,000 tons and cost $18 million. (Bonus: It’s also the tallest statue in the world.)
• Longest Reclining Buddha: The Monywa Buddha in Burma, built in 1991, is 300 feet long. If you’re not interested in modern Buddhas, the Golden Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok is probably the most famous reclining Buddha, and it still gets mentioned a lot as “one of” the longest in the world, at 46 meters.
• Largest Daibutsu Statue: Japan has a tradition of building giant Buddha statues, called Daibutsu, and I visited the largest: Todai-ji, in Nara.
• Most Famously Destroyed Buddha(s): The Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed by the Afghan Taliban in 2001.
• Tallest Unfinished Buddha: When finished, the Maitreya Project will stand 152 meters tall.

This is the latest in a series of Friday “snapshots,” featuring photos from my latest travels in China and beyond. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed to automatically receive my latest updates.

Related posts:

1. Snapshot: The Great Buddha at Todai-ji
2. Snapshot: Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang
3. Snapshot: Looking Backwards at Angkor Wat
4. Snapshot: Xi’an’s Little-Known Hanyangling
5. Snapshot: The Old Summer Palace

Tagged as: blogsherpa, Buddha Statues, China, Leshan, Sichuan, snapshot, Todai-ji