The largest Amitabha Buddha statue in Vietnam
In early April, the Buddhist Sangha of Khanh Hoa province held a ceremony to install a 44-meter-high Amitabha Buddha statue, the largest in Vietnam today, at Tong Lam Lo Son pagoda in Vinh Phuong commune, west of Nha Trang city.
Close-up of the statue. Photo:My Giang.
500 monks and nuns and 10,000 Buddhists from all over attended the ceremony and worshiped the 44-meter-high Amitabha Buddha statue, twice as tall as the white Buddha statue at Long Son Pagoda (Phuong Son Ward, Nha Trang City).
Venerable Thich Trung Thi, abbot of Tong Lam Lo Son pagoda, said that the pagoda has been around since 1954, located on an area of 5 hectares. Since 2002, the pagoda has been rebuilt and in 2009 this giant Buddha statue was built. To date, the total cost of building the pagoda is over 20 billion VND, of which the cost of building the large concrete statue is over 6 billion VND. The Venerable hopes that the pagoda and the large statue located right next to the national highway will become an attractive tourist destination for Buddhists and visitors from all over.
The statue was built on a hill. Photo:My Giang.
Recently, many ideas for building large Buddha statues have been proposed to the Nha Trang city government. These include a 70-100 meter high stone statue of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Hon Do area, south of Nha Trang city (Phuoc Dong commune) and a 108 meter high statue of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in Co Tien mountain, north of Nha Trang (Vinh Hoa ward).
If all the projects are completed, Nha Trang will have 3 giant Buddha statues "guarding" the 3 poles of the north, south and west. That is not to mention the Golden Buddha statue on the top of Trai Thuy hill, belonging to Long Son pagoda in the center of Nha Trang.
Regarding the construction of Buddha statues, Venerable Thich Thien Binh, Deputy Secretary of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha Council, Head of the Executive Committee of the Khanh Hoa Provincial Buddhist Sangha, said that building statues that are too large will be difficult to maintain. If they become tarnished or dirty, it is a sin and disrespect to the Buddha.
Anticipating these difficulties, Venerable Thich Trung Thi said the pagoda has prepared sturdy scaffolding to ensure the Amitabha statue is always white and beautiful.
According to Express
