File:Vientiane, Buddha Park (6172411347).jpg
Original file (1,758 × 1,176 pixels, file size: 1.77 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Captions
Summary edit
DescriptionVientiane, Buddha Park (6172411347).jpg |
Buddha Park, also known as Xieng Khuan , is a sculpture park located 25 km southeast from Vientiane, Laos in a meadow by the Mekong River. The park was started in 1958 by Luang Pu (Venerable Grandfather) Bunleua Sulilat. Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat was a priest-shaman who integrated Hinduism and Buddhism. His unique perspective was influenced by a Hindu rishi under whom he studied in Vietnam. After the revolution in 1975, he fled from Laos to Thailand where he built another sculpture park, Sala Keoku in Nong Khai. He fled because his anti-Communist beliefs conflicted with the views of the Pathet Lao. After Luang Pu Bunleua Sulitat left, the state took control of his garden and made it into a public park. The statues are made of reinforced concrete and are ornate, and sometimes bizarre, in design. The statues appear to be centuries old, though they are not. There are sculptures of humans, gods, animals, and demons. There are numerous sculptures of Buddha, characters of Buddhist beliefs like Avalokiteshvara, and characters of Hindu lore, including Shiva, Vishnu, and Arjuna. These sculptures were presumably cast by unskilled workers under the supervision of Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat. One notable sculpture resembles a giant pumpkin. It has three stories representing three levels - Hell, Earth and Heaven. Visitors can enter through an opening which is a mouth of a 3-metre-tall demon head and climb staircases from hell to heaven. Each story contains sculptures depicting the level. At the top, there is a vantage point where the entire park is visible. Another sculpture, an enormous 120-metre-long reclining Buddha, is also a park attraction. Vientiane is the capital and largest city of Laos, situated in the Mekong river. Vientiane became the capital in 1563 due to fears of a Burmese invasion. During French rule, Vientiane was the administrative capital and due to economic growth in recent times, it has become the economic centre of Laos. The estimated population of the city is 754,000 (2009). (From Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Park, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vientiane) |
Date | |
Source | Vientiane, Buddha Park |
Author | Arian Zwegers from Brussels, Belgium |
Camera location | 17° 58′ 00″ N, 102° 36′ 00″ E | View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap | 17.966667; 102.600000 |
---|
Licensing edit
- You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
- Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
This image, originally posted to Flickr, was reviewed on 28 July 2013 by the administrator or reviewer File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske), who confirmed that it was available on Flickr under the stated license on that date. |
The categories of this image need checking. You can do so here.
|
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 21:25, 28 July 2013 | 1,758 × 1,176 (1.77 MB) | File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske) (talk | contribs) | Transferred from Flickr by User:russavia |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
There are no pages that use this file.
Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Image title | Vientiane, Buddha Park |
---|---|
Software used | Picasa 3.0 |