Thousand-Hand Guanyin Bodhisattva Statue | 千手千眼觀世音菩薩坐佛聖像

After visiting Tianyuan Temple, our group decided to visit Thousand-Hand Guanyin Bodhisattva Statue as we spotted some of the hands while snapping photos from one of the top floors at Tianyuan Temple. Turns out, it wasn't too far from the temple. This Thousand Hand Buddha certainly seems to have been inspired by Hindu gods, as it had many pairs of hands, each holding different items. 

There were a ton of volunteers at the vicinity, though the Buddha statue itself still seems to be a work in progress. I asked one of the volunteers and they said that they are working on securing funding from various organizations which leads to bits and pieces of the Buddha and the temple being built at a time. Apparently the statue also received an award for being the largest steel sculpture in the world.  

There were surprisingly a lot of visitors. The volunteers even told me that they plan to hold fireworks to celebrate New Years' Eve and the Lunar New Year. There were also pagodas and gates in the vicinity. However, the 1st floor wasn't open for visitors yet, though they did said that it would be open before the Lunar New Year.

I loved the dark blue color lining the roof and the pagodas. I think it would look stunning once the entire temple is complete. 

Another interesting thing was the incense sticks that were offered. Don't forget to head down the stairs (that were rainbow in color!!) and take a look at the incense sticks. The temple offers a colorful variety of incense sticks, which devotees can offer to the Buddha Statue in prayer. I immediately made sure to snap some photos. There was also a mini visitor center where devotees could purchase merchandise, incense sticks, or donate money to the temple. Oh, there was even a VR headset so that visitors could experience the temple in a different way, if they choose to do so. 
 
It was very fascinating to explore and I bet it will be a very popular spot in the future. After visiting this spot with the Photowalkers, we headed to our final temple of the day: Sanzhi Seashell Temple.
 
How to get there: Getting here by public transport would not be easy. I would still recommend driving here, since it is, quite literally in the middle on a mountain. 

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