What is Digg?50 Comments
- Awwzm, on 11/04/2009, -1/+23Dugg for the Buddha with the door in the butt.
- daxter241, on 11/05/2009, -0/+19Dugg for all of them being on one page.
- fatherdoom, on 11/05/2009, -0/+17I remember seeing the Taliban blow up the Bamyan Buddhas on tv and thinking "this is about the saddest thing ever." A massive work of art stand for 1500 years until some intolerant dumbasses decide it would be doing Islam a favor to destroy it. And yeah, theyre trying to rebuild it. You might as well try to replicate the Mona Lisa.
- askantik, on 11/05/2009, -0/+17Before folks start bashing religion, may I suggest a quotation from Buddha himself:
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. - ScottMcIntyre, on 11/04/2009, -0/+12Very impressive feats of human engineering combined with artistic skills.
It's interesting to learn the planned Buddha at Maitreya Buddha, Uttar Pradesh, India will have educational and healthcare facilities which will reach out into the local community - QFA:"One aim is also to develop the area for tourism, which is why an accompanying park, cathedral, monastery, convent, guesthouse, library and food facilities are also planned." - ThatDeadDude, on 11/05/2009, -1/+10Yes, it is definitely a religion. It seems to have more useful aspects than some other religions though. By that I mean aspects that are useful even if you don't follow the religion: meditation, respect for knowledge, seeking enlightenment etc.
- jamdogg, on 11/05/2009, -0/+8I feel kind of cheated.
All these years the media has clanged on about the Statue of Liberty as though it were the grandest monument to human achievement ever made.
Most of the statues in this list OWN the Statue of Liberty a few times over - and the first I've heard of them is on digg?!? - Mujokan, on 11/05/2009, -1/+8In the West we are very influenced by Zen in our thinking on Buddhism: the American understanding of the Japanese understanding of the Chinese understanding of one school of Indian Mahayana Buddhism. The deepest of all those is the Chinese tradition.
Zen would laugh at these monuments. There's that Chinese story: A pilgrim is staying in a temple in winter. He burns the wooden image of the Buddha for firewood. The priest is outraged. The pilgrim says "I'm burning it to get to the marvelous jewels that are within wooden Buddha statues". The priest says "There aren't any jewels in wooden Buddha statues". The pilgrim says "Why do you care if I burn it then?"
But obviously hundreds of thousands of people have contributed to the building of these massive monuments, with the support of a large priesthood. There is way more to Buddhism than the esoteric tradition. And even the esoteric tradition is way more intellectual than many Americans probably realize. - BotchaMcCoola, on 11/05/2009, -0/+7Are you sure that monuments are the determinant? Islam doesn't go for such things,for example. I think Buddha is a kind of human ideal without the idea of a God. Actually pretty close to Jesus, before trying to shoehorn Jesus into the Old Testament - that is not working for many of us.
- wengyang, on 11/05/2009, -0/+7Leshan Giant Buddha took 90 years to be built. Wow, thats insane.
- Mujokan, on 11/05/2009, -0/+6My feeling at the time was: why is everyone getting so upset about these works of art, when the Taliban has been ***** everyone over in Afghanistan for so many years. Of course it was a sad day for humanity, but from a Buddhist point of view, the suffering of the Afghani people (especially women) caused by the Taliban was the greater crime. Then a little later Al Qaeda attacked the US and that was that. If that'd happened a few months earlier, maybe we'd still have the statues.
- MacBookForMe, on 11/04/2009, -0/+5Door in the butt...? What, you mean a door to heaven?
- cplusplus, on 11/05/2009, -0/+5Sounds like a good itinerary for a trip. (Visit all the big Buddhas.)
- SemperFly, on 11/05/2009, -0/+4They should throw a roller coaster on one of these; make it like a bad-ass version of the Matterhorn.
In all seriousness though, these things are amazing and I never knew such statues existed. - Mujokan, on 11/05/2009, -1/+5That's one way of looking at the historical Buddha. But there are any number of magic Buddhas around as well.
Islam has big monuments in the form of giant, expensive mosques. They just aren't into figurative representations in the Sunni countries. - Laminarcissus, on 11/05/2009, -0/+4I'm just happy to see this body mass index coming back into style.
- RudeTurnip, on 11/05/2009, -0/+4You're not my Buddha, pal!
- Awwzm, on 11/04/2009, -0/+4Only if you're into that sort of thing...of which I am.
- heysuburbia, on 11/05/2009, -0/+4Fun Fact, the largest Buddha in the Western Hemisphere is in the US:
The statue of the Amida Buddha is the largest of its kind outside Japan. It was cast in Kyoto, Japan during 1967-1968. It is made of copper and bronze, stands 12 feet high and weights approximately three and one-half tons. The Great Buddha was completed in June 1968, just in time for the Centennial Celebration which commemorated the immigration of the first Japanese to Hawaii 100 years prior.
Me at the statue two years ago:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/27444794_f1f2eb2 ...
Flickr Photoset:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53191848@N00/sets/621 ... - fatherdoom, on 11/05/2009, -0/+4Islam has also built massive minarets arguably as monuments.
But I agree that monuments dont make a religion. There are plenty of monuments that endorse very little in the way of faith. - istoner, on 11/05/2009, -0/+4I love the Buddha's expression in the statues. Its like that screw the world I'm going to peace out look.
- DulcetTone, on 11/05/2009, -0/+3Proud to be your Buddha
- BotchaMcCoola, on 11/05/2009, -0/+3But those things you mention seem more like routine good ideas. I still don't see why that has anything to do with the supernatural. It all looks very grounded in reality to me.
- walgman, on 11/05/2009, -0/+2Was not one of Buddha's requests that no likenesses of him be made? Not that I don't like them though.
- Mujokan, on 11/05/2009, -0/+2I agree about the historical and artistic aspect of it, which I kind of tried to indicate in my comment. But at the time, there was a lot of outrage about the destruction of the statues that didn't also mention the oppression of the people. That was my recollection at the time. I had been reading about the Taliban before that, and then when the dynamiting happened, I kind of thought -- why are you only getting onto these guys now?
- jamdogg, on 11/05/2009, -1/+3The Earth is approximately 6000 miles in diameter. Hell, we are are told, is within the Earth and is 10 times hotter than the Sun.
The Sun is 93 million miles from Earth and has a surface temperature of 6000°C (11000°F).
This means Hells' temperature is at least 60,000°C (110,000°F).
Right now it's quite chilly out and I need the heater on. What happened - did Hell freeze over? - VulgusPecum, on 11/05/2009, -0/+2Because what was built thousands of years ago can't be rebuilt again. It's History's heritage that was lost forever when those dumbasses bombed it. Also, you make it sound like it's not possible to feel sad for both the crimes against the Afghani AND the buddhas. There's no race condition or mutual exclusion at play here. They destroyed one of mankind's jewels for stupid and narrow-sighted reasons, ***** shame.
- maddskillz, on 11/05/2009, -0/+2What about a statue of the founding fathers? People can respect the ideas they had and want to pay homage, that doesn't necessarily make it a religion
- onlines, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1I like big Buddha's and i cannot lie, other brother's can't deny.
- orbish, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1I saw a documentary where they excavated a Buddha lying down. They estimated it to be like 1000 feet long or something. Maybe they were searching for it, I forgot... Might have been in/around Afghanistan... anyone know what I'm talking about?
- heysuburbia, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Video (skip to 17:20):
http://vimeo.com/756134 - fatherdoom, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1A rare thing these days.
- BotchaMcCoola, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Some look like the Everlasting Know It All.
- zenvok, on 11/19/2009, -0/+1Buddhism is a non-theist philosophy and way of life. It is not a religion per se because they do not put any trust in faith. They trust reason. In fact, buddhism has some of the most advanced descriptions of psychology around that those masters have accumulated though time and effort. They "religious" aspect that people see through the rituals, "magic" buddhas, recitations and chants are purely a cultural way to transmit knowledge from a generation to another, mixed with art and music and the path towards "awakening" through complete understanding of one's own inner nature and the nature of the world. Alot more like an inner-science than a religion if you ask me. Just FYI.
Peace :) - Scira, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1I'm not too sure on "Fat Buddah", Or Budai. Isn't he supposed to be like the Chinese figure of contentment?
- festriaqua, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1dont call me pal, friend!
- MattBD, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Not really - medieval cathedrals often took a similar length of time to be built.
- rrwest, on 11/07/2009, -0/+1Aren't His Holiness the Dalai Lama and others like him the true "biggest" Buddhas in the world?
Just asking. - nemomarlin, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Great Achievement in Engineering and Artistic skills. This is intellectual orgasm.
- Mujokan, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1That looks like the one in Streetfighter II.
- zenvok, on 11/19/2009, -0/+1I never heard of that.. I know that the Buddha's figure is central to basic meditation techniques... And is represented everywhere in every culture that adopted his path (Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, etc, etc).. So probably not..
- Endeavour3d, on 11/06/2009, -0/+1It is a shame, but the destruction of the Buddhas brought about the discovery of other artifacts that lay hidden for a long time, so something good came of what on the surface appeared bad. Part of Buddhism is to let go of attachment and realize that nothing lasts, not even the universe. By holding onto things tightly you create suffering for yourself and others, learning to let go and appreciating that what you have now may not be here later is the best way to enjoy life. The other teaching of Buddhism is that not all things that appear bad or misfortunate really are, sometimes they can be misunderstood blessings, or opportunity in disguise.
- Dugglous, on 11/06/2009, -0/+1Who cares if it's a religion. Personally I've NEVER heard of Buddhists killing other people for not following Buddhism in the history of mankind.
If I'm not mistaken, Buddhism doesn't forbid you from believing in Christianity or any other religion. Sure to say you will get what's coming for you if you do bad things is a bit unrealistic (karma), but it's one of the most accepting and tolerant beliefs. - Mujokan, on 11/05/2009, -1/+1That's a good point. However, many of these statues aren't of the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni) but the Buddha of Compassion (Kannon or Guanyin) or the Buddha of the Future (Matreyia). If you wanted to pay homage to "The Founding Father of Compassion" or "The Founding Father of the Future", then I would say you were participating in a religion.
And take one of the Shakyamuni statues, the one in Bhutan. Bhutanese Buddhism has all kinds of saints and marvels in it. There are many rituals and ceremonies and other practices throughout the year that make it a religion for them. Yes, they also have a school of esoteric Buddhism that's very philosophical and abstract, but it's for monks of long experience, not the general population. - Mujokan, on 11/05/2009, -6/+6People often seem to say "Buddhism is not a religion". Sorry, but it is a religion, or you wouldn't get monuments like these.
- burrdugg, on 11/08/2009, -0/+0That Buddha is laying there nonchalantly, waiting for you to enter his butt.
- santiago1, on 11/05/2009, -5/+2 What, no mention of Michael Moore?
- revslaughter, on 11/05/2009, -4/+1I find it strange that a religion devoted to the release from attachments would build...well, anything, but certainly these large statues.
- amenhotep, on 11/05/2009, -8/+1THESE ARE MAGNIFICENT BUT ALL YOU IDOL WORSHIPERS WILL BURN IN HELL!
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