Europe's tallest statue of the Virgin Mary has just been unveiled in a tiny Polish village.
The 182ft statue, inaugurated on Saturday, towers over Konotopie in central Poland, home to fewer than 150 residents.
In a ceremony consecrated by a Catholic bishop, helicopters scattered miniature red roses over the huge crowd, Roman Catholic priests in white robes celebrated Mass ("church"), and the popular Mazowsze folk ensemble sang and danced to traditional Polish music.
The £20 million monument took around 18 months to build and is taller than the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which stands at 125 feet including its pedestal.
It is also taller than the Christ the King statue in the western Polish town of Swiebodzin, which was unveiled in 2010 and rises to about 170 feet above the ground.
But the highest Virgin Mary statue is in the Philippines, which measures 322 feet.
Lech Walesa, a former Polish president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership of the Polish anti-communist resistance, had a front row seat during the inauguration.
"This is the end of my path," the 82-year-old Walesa said, suggesting that the causes he has long championed, including democracy and Catholic faith, are now completed.
This California redwood in the Grove of Giants looks tallest so must be the oldest, too.
Tallest tree in Asia: 335 ft
The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is the world's largest terrestrial canyon — longer than even Mexico's Copper Canyon or the lesser U.S. Grand Canyon in Arizona and deeper than every other known canyon on land. (The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean surpasses it [and the deepest one in the USA, the underwater crater in Chesapeake Bay?]).
The canyon is named after the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which adventurers have dubbed the "Everest of rivers," because it is mostly inaccessible and has the highest average elevation, at 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), of any major river on Earth.
The headwaters of the Yarlung Tsangpo are located in the west of the Tibet Autonomous Region at Angsi Glacier, and the river then meanders east across the Tibetan Plateau before bending sharply southwestward to join up with the Brahmaputra River.
Related: Is Mount Everest really the tallest mountain on Earth? [That's in doubt since K2 on the same range is poorly measured, and Mt. Hilo in Hawaii is mostly underwater
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is 314 miles (505 kilometers) long, which is 37 miles (60 km) longer than the Grand Canyon.
It includes some of the most rugged and least-explored places in the world, including a treacherous section in the southeastern Tibet Autonomous Region, where it passes between two towering peaks, Namcha Barwa, which stands 25,530 feet (7,782 m) tall, and Gyala Peri, which sits slightly lower, at 23,930 feet (7,294 m).
Live Science
Mount Everest | The History of the World's Highest Peak
Tree spirits are called dryads
The canyon dips to its deepest point along this stretch, reaching 19,715 feet (6,009 m) from top to bottom, or three times as deep as the Grand Canyon.
The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon has an average depth of 7,440 feet (2,270 m).
The canyon formed when tectonic forces pushed up Earth's crust around 3 million years ago and steepened the path of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which then caused massive erosion, Live Science previously reported.
And as if it weren't breaking enough records already, the canyon is also home to the tallest tree ever discovered in Asia — a 335-foot-tall (102 m) cypress that would overshadow the Statue of Liberty.
A research team from Peking University measured the tree in May 2023 as part of an ecological survey to help preserve the unique ecosystem of the Tibet Autonomous Region [which is claimed by China].
Gran Abuelo in Chile is thought to be oldest tree
It's unclear which species the tree belongs to, although Chinese state media publications at the time suggested it could be a Himalayan cypress (Cupressus torulosa) or a Tibetan cypress (Cupressus gigantea).
Here is a full-length picture of Asia's tallest tree. More:
An enormous tree has been discovered inside the deepest canyon in the world. It is thought to be the tallest tree in Asia, as well as the second-tallest tree in the entire world.
The tree was found to stand 335 feet tall, according to a statement from Peking University, 30 feet (10 meters) taller than the 305-foot Statue of Liberty.
Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is considered the deepest canyon on land in the world [with deeper ones in the deep ocean, like the Mariana Trench], reaching an average depth of around 16,000 feet and a maximum depth of 19,714 feet.
Our relatively small U.S. "Grand" Canyon lags behind Mexico's massive Copper Canyon (part of the same Sierra Madre range), but no one mentions that. There are other other great canyons.
According to the statement, the tree is a Himalayan or Bhutan cypress (Cupressus torulosa), while other reports in Chinese state media cite the tree as being a Tibetan cypress (Cupressus gigantea).
The tree was discovered using a drone carrying a LiDAR sensor, another Peking University statement explained.
LiDAR is similar to sonar and echolocation, using laser light instead of sound to map out surroundings.
Using the data gathered by the LiDAR, researchers from Peking University, the Xizijiang Conservation Center and the Shan Shui Conservation Center created a 3D model of the huge tree, which was confirmed as being the largest tree in Asia after a field survey.
The oldest confirmed tree is the bodhi ("enlightenment") tree or sacred fig (Ficus religiosa) the Buddha sat under, not the actual one, which was destroyed by marauding Muslims in Bihar, India, who could not stand to see a tree honored, but rather a cutting from that tree, now grown massive on the island of predominantly Buddhist Sri Lanka.
Other tall trees discovered
Grove of enormous cypress trees growing in the Himalayas (Peking University)
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We have to save old growth forests
This tree has broken previous records set by the same team for the tallest tree in China:
In April 2022, they discovered a 252-foot tree in Medog County, while only a month later, they found a 272-foot-tall fir tree in southwest China.
There are also a huge number of massive trees in this area, with 25 over 295 feet having been discovered near the record-breaking tree.
Himalayan and Tibetan cypresses are rare in the wild, with only a few living in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon National Nature Reserve. They are a first-class protected plant species in China.
The cypresses are in Tibet (southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region).
Then this 335-foot cypress was discovered, making it the tallest tree in Asia, and second-tallest tree in the world.
The world's tallest tree (California redwood)
Horseback riders enter redwood forest
The tallest tree in the world can be found in Redwood National Park in California, measuring a staggering 381 feet.
This coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), first found in 2006, is thought to be between 600 and 800 years old and is nicknamed Hyperion.
With this newly discovered tree filling the second-tallest spot,
the third-tallest tree is a 330-foot mountain ash in Australia,
the fourth is a 327-foot Coast Douglas fir in Oregon, and
the fifth is Menara, a 323.3-foot yellow meranti found in Malaysia. More
The Statue of Liberty, enlightening the world, is a hollow colossus composed of thinly pounded copper sheets over a steel framework. It was designed in Paris by the French sculptor Frederic Bartholdi in collaboration with the French engineer Gustave Eiffel, who made the frame.
Our symbol is not the biggest by any stretch, but Buddhist statues are hard to match.
It was intended as a gift from France to the USA for the centenary of American independence in 1876. Its design and construction were recognized at the time as one of the greatest technical achievements of the 19th century and, when finally dedicated a decade later, it was hailed as a bridge between art and engineering.
No one sees the slave chains at her ankles, which the artist was almost not allowed to include, which almost no one knows about except for the dogged investigations of Dr. Joy DeGruy.
It is topped by a pedestal designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt, and it is situated on Stanton Island at the entrance of New York Harbor to welcome the world coming in via the Atlantic route. Indeed, the statue has since welcomed millions of immigrants who arrive by sea.
Construction began in 1875 and was completed in 1884. Crews worked a round the clock seven days a week for nine years to finish installation. When the statue was ready in Paris in 1885, it was disassembled into 350 pieces, shipped to New York City, and reassembled. It took four months just to put it back together again.
Various parts of the statue were on display throughout Paris as each was completed. Miss Liberty's head was exhibited in the gardens at the Tracadéro, and her torch was on display as well. On July 4, 1884, the completed statue was presented to the American minister in an impressive ceremony.
The historical Buddha in Theravada Buddhist Thailand (Baddoguy/flickr.com)
The statue had remained open for visitors in Paris until near the end of 1884. Late in the year, it was dismantled for its own trip across the Atlantic like so many who followed after. In May 1885, its parts were loaded on a French warship, which arrived in New York Harbor in June of that year. (A small-scale replica was dedicated in Paris on July 5, 1889. Americans residing in France assisted the French in its dedication.
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886 when Pres. Grover Cleveland formally accepted the French gift. He pronounced: "We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected."
This is the 1883 sonnet by poet Emma Lazarus that is inscribed on a bronze plaque on the statue's pedestal, mounted there in 1903.
"The New Colossus"
Let freedom ring throughout the land!
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Measurements and statistics
A nation built on the backs of slaves under white oppression (ratherexposethem)
The Buddha-to-come Maitreya's golden feet unbound: biggest Buddha in world,India, where the Buddha Gautama passed into final nirvana (unexplained-mysteries.com)
Round up slaves to build the Republic!
Height from base to torch: 151'1″
Ground to tip of torch: 305'1″
Heel to top of head: 111'1″
Length of hand: 16'5″
Index finger: 8'0″
Head from chin to cranium: 17'3″
Head thickness from ear to ear: 10'0″
Distance across the eye: 2'6″
Length of nose: 4'6″
Length of right arm: 42'0″
Thickness of right arm: 12'0″
Thickness of waist: 35'0″
Width of mouth: 3'0″
Length of tablet: 23'7″
Width of tablet: 13'7″
Thickness of tablet: 2'0″
Height of pedestal: 154'0″
The weight of copper in the statue is 62,000 pounds (31 tons) and the weight of steel is 250,000 pounds (125 tons).
Total weight of the statue's concrete foundation is 54 million pounds (27,000 tons).
The copper sheeting is 3/32 of an inch (2.37 mm) thick.
Wind sway: winds of 50 miles per hour cause the statue to sway 3 inches (7.62 cm), and the torch sways 5 inches (12.70 cm).
The Future-Buddha Maitreya, Diskit monastery, Himalayas (MickeySuman/flickr)
Mountain-size "Giant Buddha" of Leshan's foot photographed from stairway that leads toward base of the statue that stands 253 feet (77 meters), making it the largest stone Buddha in the world -- even larger than the known monoliths in Afghanistan, where the Buddha was likely born and where a larger reclining Buddha remains be discovered). It is carved into the Chinese cliff face facing Mt. Emei in the distance (Andrew MacDonald).
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Maitreya (Dboo/flickr.com)
This sutra consists of a narrative illustrating the power of skillful karma. In the past, unskillful behavior was unknown among humans.
As a result, people lived for an immensely long time -- as long as 80,000 years [which is likely a stereotype rather than literal number signifying an extraordinarily long time, an ayu-kalpa, an average lifespan within a larger cycle, an incalculable or innumerable] -- endowed with great beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength.
Leshan head and tourists (Joegwolf/flickr)
Over the course of time, however, they began behaving in various unskillful ways. This caused the gradual shortening of the human life span, to the point where it now stands at 100 years, with human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength decreasing proportionately.
In the future, as morality continues to degenerate, human life will continue to shorten to the point were the normal life span will be just 10 years, with people reaching sexual maturity at five.
The Giant Buddha of Leshan, China (Qasimism/flickr.com)
"Among those human beings, the Ten Courses of Action (AN 10.176) will have entirely disappeared... The word "skillful" will not exist, so from where will there be anyone who does what is skillful?
Those who lack the honorable qualities of motherhood, fatherhood, shraman (wandering ascetic)-hood, and Brahmin-hood will be the ones who receive homage... Fierce hatred will arise, fierce malevolence, fierce rage, and murderous thoughts: mother for child, child for mother, father for child, child for father, brother for sister, sister for brother."
Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a "sword-interval," in which swords appear in the hands of all human beings, and they will hunt one another like game. A few people, however, will take shelter in the wilderness to escape the carnage. And when the slaughter is over, they will come out of hiding and resolve to take up a life of skillful and virtuous action again.
With the recovery of virtue, the human life span will gradually increase again until it reaches a very long time (listed as 80,000 years), with people attaining sexual maturity at 500 [another number that literally means "a large number" instead of 500].
The Sanskrit name Maitreya (Metteyya in Pāli) is derived from the Sanskrit word maitrī (Pāli mettā) which means "loving-kindness." This term is in turn derived from the noun mitra (Pāli mitta) in the sense of "friend." Maitreya is typically pictured seated, with either both feet on the ground or crossed at the ankles, on a throne, waiting for his time. He is dressed in the clothes of either a bhikshu or Indian royalty. As a bodhisattva, he would usually be standing and dressed in jewels. Usually he wears a small stupa in his headdress that represents the stupa of the Buddha Sakyamuni's relics to help him identify it when his turn comes to lay claim to his succession, and can be holding a Dharmachakra (wheel of life) resting on a lotus. A khata (ceremonial scarf) is always tied around his waist as a girdle. The Stupa on his head was actually seen by disciples when Maitreya received teachings from his master Buddha Shakyamuni as a sign of his outstanding devotion. That is the reason why he is pictured with a Stupa either on his head or in his hands. Also the original Stupa was a crystal one, which stands for the purity of his devotion. In the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, in the first centuries CE in northwestern India, Maitreya is represented as a Central Asian or northern Indian noble (kshatriya caste, warrior, ruler, royalty), holding a "water phial" (kumbha) in his left hand. Sometimes this is a "wisdom urn."
The Future Buddha
One of the most beautiful representations of the Future Buddha, the second most important figure in populist Mahayana Buddhism. Kwan Yin, like the Virgin Mary in Catholicism, is the most important. Thikse monastery, Ladakh, Buddhist India, Himalayas (WQ).
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Only three diseases will be known at that time: desire, lack of food, and old age. Another buddha -- Metteyya (Sanskrit, "Maitreya") -- will gain enlightenment and have a Sangha [a monastic community of monks, nuns, and novices]numbering in the thousands.
Maitreya is regarded as the future buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. In some Mahayana Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, he is referred to as Ajita Bodhisattva. He is the bodhisattva, or buddha-to-be,who in Buddhist tradition will be reborn on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and again make known the liberating Dharma unique to buddhas. According to sutras he is the immediate successor of the historic Śhākyamuni Buddha. The prophecy of his arrival refers to a time when the Dharma will have been forgotten by most on Jambudvipa [more likely a reference to this planet or region in space than to the subcontinent of India]. It is found in the canonical literature of all major Buddhist schools (Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna), and is accepted by most Buddhists as a statement about an event that will take place when the Dharma will have been mostly forgotten on Earth.
The greatest ruler of the time, King Sankha, will go forth into homelessness and attain arhatship under Metteyya's guidance.
The story, after chronicling the ups and downs of human wealth, life span, and so on, concludes with the following lesson on karma and skillful action.
..."Meditators, live with yourself as your island, yourself as your guide (not refuge), with nothing else as your guide. Live with the Dharma as your island, the Dharma as your guide, with nothing else as your guide. [To this might well be added the noble-Sangha, those who have successfully followed the Buddha's ennobling Dharma and gained one or more of the stages of enlightenment. These three -- Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha -- are regarded as the Three Precious Jewels of tradition].
This may also be translated as: "Live with dharma [rather than the Dharma, the Teaching, the Doctrine] as your island, mental phenomena as your guide, with nothing else as your guide." Dhamma has many meanings, one in particular is phenomena. Another more common definition in India is "social obligations" or "duties" (as opposed to karma, which are one's personal choices for action). The Buddha, a karmavadin, or teacher-of-karma, was not recommending one simply do whatever one feels like, but to live in accordance with Truth, with justice, in harmony with others.
"And how does one with oneself as island, oneself as guide, with nothing else as guide; with the Dharma as island, the Dharma as guide, with nothing else as guide?
"There is the case where a meditator remains focused on the body in and of itself -- ardent, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world. One remains focused on feelings (sensations) in and of themselves... mind (process of consciousness) in and of itself... mental qualities in and of themselves -- ardent, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world. [We stop here because Maitreya is not mentioned again, and why is that? The suggestion is that it is because this sutra was never really about Maitreya. See commentary below.] More
Doubt about this discourse: Metteyya (Sanskrit Maitreya) is mentioned in the Cakavatti (Sihanada) Sutta (DN 26) of the Pali Canon. He appears in no other sutra in the Pali Canon, and this has cast doubt as to the sutra's authenticity. Most of the Buddha's discourses are presented as having been presented in answer to a question, or in some other appropriate context. But this sutra has a beginning and ending in which the Buddha is talking to monastics about something totally different. This leads Gombrich to conclude that either the whole sutra is apocryphal (of unknown origin), or that it has at least been tampered with (Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, pp. 83-85).
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.
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].
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
It may be in Afghanistan, as yet uncovered in the archeological remains of an ancient Buddhist land west of India -- which influenced the development of Buddhism in ancientGreece (Greco-Buddhism, seevideo) before the Dharma traveled to the land protected from barbarians behind its Great Wall.
It is not in India (at least not yet). Tibetan Buddhists are working on that near the possible site of the historical Buddha's reclining into final-nirvana, Kusinagar, not far from the border with Nepal.
THE RELICS TOUR, which continues in east suburban Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley city of Rosemead (Lu Mountain Temple).
The center of the former Khmer empire in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Angkor (Alexey Stiop/livescience.com)
Smiling stone face, Angkor (Photox0906/flickr)
Nor is it in the world's largest Buddhist temple complex -- the fabled Khmer city-state discovered in the dense jungles of Southeast Asia, the amazing world heritage site of Angkor, Cambodia, built around Angkor Wat.
Might it be in Bhutan? There, high in the Himalayas of the world's last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom, is a magnificent new structure of staggering proportions in Thimphu.
Giant Buddha of Thimphu, Bhutan -- expensive tourism gets more expensive (smh.au.com)
It is not on Ellis Island, New York, USA, a site renowned the world over for it big statues, thanks to France.
Rather it is a foreign Thai temple, Wat Machimmaram, located in Tumpat town,
in the state Kelantan, Malaysia.
Big Buddha, Lantau Island, Hong Kong (Ak_phuong/flickr)
Despite being a Muslim-dominated state,
a little known fact is that it is home to 200 or more Buddhist
temples, most of them concentrated in this town.
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