Of course you would like to see a giant lesbian Buddha. Who wouldn’t? Unfortunately, I misread the above title when I decided to write about it, and such a lesbian Buddha does not, to my knowledge, exist. I will admit that most Buddha statues appear to be wearing lipstick, so whether that makes them lipstick lesbians, cross-dressing Buddhas, or Taiwanese lady-boys I can’t even pretend to comprehend. Is that enough sacrilege for you today? Okay good.
The Leshan Giant Buddha (seriously, that name is two letters away from wearing a flannel shirt and funneling a Natural Light at a football game) is a Chinese statue built during the Tang Dynasty. It is carved from a cliff face in the Sichuan province of China near the city of Leshan. The Leshan Giant Buddha is the largest stone Buddha in the world, and was constructed in 713 by a Chinese monk named Haitong. The statue is 233 feet tall and depicts Maitreya Buddha with his hands on his knees. If you want a little history lesson, Haitong the monk gouged his own eyes out when he realized he didn’t have enough funds to finish the project. Have you ever heard of that kind of dedication? If you haven’t, just spend five minutes talking to a lesbian who recently moved in with a girlfriend they just met. Coincidence?
