Dazu Grotto Again (March 21)

On March 21, I woke up around 7:30 a.m., got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. I sat with Wentao and talked to her about various things. She told me about her upcoming business trip to Las Vegas during Spring break and how she didn't really want to go. Anyways, around 9 a.m. we checked out of the hotel and drove to Baoding hill to visit the famous Grotto.

The Grotto





The horrible punishments suffered in the Nether World: a guy being stabbed by a huge pole and a man being run over by a large wheel.

Some of the deadly sins: drinking alcohol, being promiscuous, and disobeying one's parents.

I was told this is the "Mona Lisa" of China

If I'm not mistaken, this "filial piety" is what differentiates Indian Buddhism from Chinese Buddhism. Indians don't believe that a Buddha should have contact with his family.

The story about the following picture is about Sakyamuni when he was poor. He had to go around begging for food and finally got three pieces of bread from a stranger. He gave the two pieces of bread to his mother and father and, being the good son he was, saved the third piece of bread (seen in his belt on the right) for his parents so that they could eat it at a later time.

I believe in this one Sakyamuni cut out a chunk of his arm to help feed his parents.

Sakyamuni taking care of his dying father as he lay on his deathbed.

The drainage system, so that the water would not destroy the carvings.

The huge Sakyamuni Buddha

Literally, the thousand armed Buddha. Unfortunately, it was undergoing renovation, so we couldn't really see it.

His face
Some of the many hands

The following two pictures show the taming of buffalo, which are a metaphor on how to become a good Buddhist and person. In the first picture, the buffalo are still wild and untrained.

But after some discipline and punishment, the buffalo have been trained, seen below.

Inside a cave (I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but this is on one of the sides of the cave. At the front are three Buddhas.)

The emperor and his wife.

The character on the wall, "fu", means good fortune, so the people have to stand several feet in front of it, close their eyes, try to walk in a straight line, and touch it in the center. The ones that succeed have good fortune. I tried doing it and was not able to touch it at all.

Part of the park that the Grotto is in.

We left the Grotto around noon and drove to our restaurant for lunch where Jared and I talked to an American principle who was there with some Chinese women discussing implementing Chinese into her school's curriculum.

The restaurant that we went to for lunch with cool huts (eating rooms) on the water. We didn't get to eat in them, however.

The sign says "Outerspace Breeding Scientific Research Facilities"


After lunch, six of us (Magnus, Erik, Jeremy, Caitlin, Marissa, and I) were dropped off at the bus stop where we then went to Chongqing.