"Story time...." Top 5 Page for this destination Leshan Grand Buddha Tip by sugarpuff

Long long ago........The river Minjiang was said to have a very torrential section to it from Leshan eastwards to Jianwei. Waves crashed against the rocks day after day washing the cliffs away. A river like this had long caused great trouble to the communication betwenn the rich western part of Shu and the lower reaches of Two Hu's, Wan and Zhe. In the first year of the Tang Dynasty, Monk Haitong said 'NO' to the evil monsters controlling the river! He thought of digging the cliffs away to let the rocks fall into the currents. If an image of a Buddha was carved, Buddhism would also be glorified! Good thinking Batman!

Once built, the sky became clear and bright as if the Buddha was giving light to the world. In a calm observance of the world, the Buddha denies whatever is unreal and whatever is vulgar,rewards the kind and punishes the evil, teaches people according to his intelligence, and hels those who have momentarily lost their way. Who else could have stopped those turbulent waves apart from the Buddha?Certainly NOT Spiderman!

A corrupt official of that time tried to bribe the Monk by asking him for the money from the Buddha. But the Monk replied "Get out of here you money grabbing b*****d!" No sorry, he didnt say that at all...he said "You may tear out my eyes, but you will never get the money for the construction of the Buddha!" (See, I nearly got it right!) The bad official got angry and threatened him, "Let's see if I can gouge your eyes out then!" The Monk himself took out one of his eyes and presented it on a plate! The bad man ran out in a panic begging for forgiveness! The moral of this story....I leave that one up to you!