Famen Temple Great Buddha

We could see this Buddha from the parking lot at Famen Temple. I have searched the web for information about this but only found a photo of it attached to the Famen Temple link. The ticket says (in Chinese) Famen Temple Eastern Great Buddha Temple, or something to that effect. I guess it is part of the Famen Temple, but it was a distance to walk to get to it. It was so neat! Buddhas on four sides to protect the four directions. You could climb up the inside (and of course we did)... again, incredible views! Enjoy the photos!

Here are a few pics in case the slide show won't load for you...

Famen Temple

After lunch, we went to Famen Temple. Here's the write-up on the temple from another site:

Famen Temple is situated in Famen Town 120 kilometers northwest of Xi'an. Although this Temple is a little far from Xi'an, it is an exciting place with an intriguing history and it is worth making the effort to visit.

Famen literally means the initial way to become a Buddhist believer. The Famen Temple was first set up during East Han Dynasty. In the year 147 AD, King Asoka of India traveled to Asia, preaching Buddhism. In China, he established Famen Temple and left the fingers of Buddha to be enshrined here. The original wooden four-storey Famen Temple Pagoda fell down due to an earthquake in 1569. The rebuilt thirteen-storey brick building also collapsed in 1981 due to constantly rainy season. In the course of rebuilding the pagoda in 1987,an underground vault was discovered under the base of the pagoda. A great amount of Buddhist relics were found including four finger sarira relics.

The tower was beautiful but the flags were annoying...
Whew! A view without flags!



This monk really liked AB, and gave her some fruit to eat
This is the underground relics part