Tuesday, May 6, 2008Beijing
This tower is pretty impressive, three stories tall, with eight open sides to expose beautiful views in every direction. A statue of the Thousand Handed (Guanshiyin) Buddha is at the center, with a giant pearl hanging from the apex of the ceiling above its head(s). The gold gilding literally glows in the late afternoon sun, exuding a mystical quality of its own.
I can’t find anything that explains how the gold stayed in tact, since this dates back to the Ming Dynasty, long before Allied soldiers began scraping gold off the gold gilded cauldrons of the Forbidden City with their bayonets.
Chalk that up to another Chinese mystery.
(Photo credit: Vilas, from Picasa)
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