Longmen Caves - Giant Buddha (LuoYang, Henan, 龙门石窟, 洛阳 河南)

A trip to China would not be complete without seeing some gigantic buddha statues :-)  From LuoYang city is a short bus trip to this place by the river. It is impressive - not just how big, massive and time frozen - but think of all the work to carve this out of the rock!

The guys below are said to be the Boddhisatvas, beings in a state close to Buddha (depending on the interpretation). I cannot help to notice, they remind me of Indian figures...

That's me :-)

The surroundings are also pretty. You can see, below the temple, the carved grottoes that abound around here. More details here.

On my way to the site, I stopped by a Buddhist temple, supposed to be the first site where a buddhist temple was erected in China. Now its is a rebuilt/renovated construction, with gardens, with construction in wood and cement. An interesting scene which I could still capture with my camera, two monks playing table tenis. It is nothing extraordinary, especially in China, but it surprised me, I guess I was still expecting the stereotype of the introverted meditative monks!