West’s largest Buddhist stupa rises in Spain

Benalmádena, Spain’s Enlightenment Stupa is a karmic surprise amid the Moorish minarets and ancient Christian steeples.
Lee Lawrence (Christian Science Monitor, 3/18/09 edition)

Dressed in dark jeans and jacket, Dizi Btissam fingers a motorcycle helmet as she listens to a young man with thick eyelashes and wavy hair. Behind them, a gilded statue of Buddha looks benignly down at a row of poinsettias.

“He is not a god,” Ivan Baez explains, as a low tremolo of chants filters through the sound system. “For us he represents the natural qualities that we all possess but that are obscured by our emotions, personalities…” More>>

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PHOTOS: 1. Spanish enlightenment: A Spanish tourist stops to visit inside The Benalmádena Enlightenment Stupa south of Malaga (Lee Lawrence). 2. Unexpected stupa: the Benalmádena Enlightenment Stupa rises 108 feet high and stretches 82 feet across at the base – the largest in the West (Lee Lawrence).