Is a bigger Buddha better? (video)

Amber Larson, Maya, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Fareed Zakaria, Global Public Square (CNN)

The Buddha, Statue of Liberty (USA), The Motherland Calls (Russia), Redeemer (Brazil) [W]

Is bigger better?

Mountaintop Tian Tan Buddha, Lantau Island, Hong Kong (rmonty119/flickr)

  

Smaller Afghan Buddha

China is home to the world's fastest train, longest bridge, largest freestanding building, longest wall, and is the biggest source of tourists in the world. In China, bigger is definitely better -- even when it comes to the Buddha.

 

Massive Buddha statues have been built around the country over the past few decades. The 160-foot Buddha in the video towers over crowds like another 300-foot Buddha in eastern China. 

 

Is Liberty a freed slave? (USS)

In 2002, the tallest statue in the world -- the 500-foot Spring Temple Buddha -- was unveiled in China. It is almost 200 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty!

[Scholar Dr. Joy DeGruy points out that the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor is shackled by broken ankle chains signifying our history of enslaving Africans and others, yet nearly no American knows it because the truth is kept hidden by the Nat'l Park Service].

 

India's future biggest Buddha? (Maitreya)

So why is Buddha on steroids? One word: tourists. Last year, this Buddha reportedly brought in 3.8 million visitors and $200 million. Not every large statue has been met with appreciation though. Two giant Buddhas in their birthday suits recently unveiled in Eastern China were taken down after an uproar. More

In 1886, the Statue of Liberty was a symbol of democracy and Enlightenment ideals. It was also a celebration of the Union's Civil War victory and our [official] abolition of slavery. Edouard de Laboulaye first proposed the idea of a great monument as a gift from France. He was a firm supporter of Pres. Lincoln's fight for abolition. For he saw it as a way to eliminate immorality and a means of protesting repressive tendencies in France. More