In the beautiful city of Chongqing (重庆市) there is a Buddhist monastery among the skyscrapers on the peninsula between the confluence of the Jialin and Chang (Yangtze) rivers. It's a working monastery with monks living there and everything. One of the highlights for me was a construction site.
The 500 Buddhas Temple was not yet complete. We walked through some construction debris and went inside the open doors. The 500 Buddhas were still being made by a team of sculptors. It was very visually interesting.
There were huge mounds of clay all over the floor, along with some broken Buddha pieces and plastic sheeting. There were several fiberglass Buddha molds both inside and outside the building. The sculptors were working in the dim light of a few bare light bulbs and were surrounded by Buddhas in various stages of completion. It was a rare opportunity to see this team of sculptors making the 500 Buddhas right there in the temple they will inhabit.
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