Great Buddha Dordenma is a gigantic
Shakyamuni Buddha
statue
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
in the mountains of
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
celebrating the 60th anniversary of fourth king
Jigme Singye Wangchuck
Jigme Singye Wangchuck ( dz, འཇིགས་མེད་སེང་གེ་དབང་ཕྱུག་, ; born 11 November 1955) is a member of the House of Wangchuck who was the king of Bhutan (Druk Gyalpo) from 1972 until his abdicati ...
. The statue houses over one hundred thousand smaller Buddha statues, each of which, like the Great Buddha Dordenma itself, are made of
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
and gilded in gold. The Great Buddha Dordenma is sited amidst the ruins of
Kuensel Phodrang, the palace of
Sherab Wangchuk, the thirteenth
Druk Desi
The Druk Desi ( Dzongkha: འབྲུག་སྡེ་སྲིད་; Wylie:'' 'brug sde-srid''; also called " Deb Raja")The original title is Dzongkha: སྡེ་སྲིད་ཕྱག་མཛོད་; Wylie: ''sde-srid phyag-mdzod''. ...
, overlooking the southern approach to
Thimphu
Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient ...
, the capital of Bhutan. Construction began in 2006 and was planned to finish in October 2010, however construction did not conclude until 25 September 2015. The completed work is one of the largest
Buddha rupa
Much Buddhist art uses depictions of the historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, which are known as Buddharūpa (literally, "Form of the Awakened One") in Sanskrit and Pali. These may be statues or other images such as paintings. The main figure in ...
s in the world, at and contains 100,000 8-inch-tall and 25,000 12-inch-tall gilded bronze Buddhas.
The statue was constructed at a cost of US$47 million by Aerosun Corporation of
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
, China, which was sponsored by Rinchen Peter Teo a Singaporean businessman. The total cost of the entire project is well over US$100 million. The interior will accommodate respectively. Names of sponsors are displayed in the meditation hall which forms the throne of the Great Buddha Dordenma. Apart from commemorating the centennial of the
Bhutanese monarchy
Bhutanese may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Bhutan
* Dzongkha, the official national language of Bhutan (sometimes called "Bhutanese")
* A person from Bhutan, or of Bhutanese descent, see Demographics of Bhutan
* Bhutanese culture
* Bhuta ...
, it fulfills two prophecies. In the twentieth century, the yogi
Sonam Zangpo
Sonam is a given name. It is a Tibetan name meaning "merit" (). Separately, it is also a name in various Indo-Aryan languages (Devanagari script: ).
People with this name include:
Buddhism
* Sönam Choklang, 2nd Panchen Lama (1438–1505)
* Sona ...
prophesied that a large statue of either
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
,
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
or of a
phurba
The ''phurba'' (; alternate transliterations: ''phurpa'', ''phurbu'', ''purbha'', or ''phurpu'') or ''kīla'' (Sanskrit Devanagari: कील; IAST: kīla) is a three-sided peg, stake, knife, or nail-like ritual implement traditionally associat ...
would be built in the region ''to bestow blessings, peace and happiness on the whole world''. Additionally, the statue is mentioned in the ancient
terma of Guru Rinpoche, a.k.a.
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
, himself, said to date from approximately the eighth century, and recovered some 600 years ago by
terton Pema Lingpa
Pema Lingpa or Padma Lingpa (, 1450–1521) was a Bhutanese saint and siddha of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is considered a ''terchen'' or "preeminent tertön" (, discoverer of spiritual treasures) and is considered to be foremos ...
.
Under the eyes of the Buddha statue, the Kuensel Phodrang nature park formally opened in 2011. The park conserves 943.4 acres of forest area that surrounds the Buddha Dordenma statue and houses two public outdoor gymnasiums which opened in 2015.
See also
*
Laykyun Sekkya
*
Great Buddha of Thailand
*
The Big Buddha (Hong Kong)
The Big Buddha is a large bronze statue of Buddha, completed in 1993, and located at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island, in Hong Kong. The statue is sited near Po Lin Monastery and symbolises the harmonious relationship between man and nature, peopl ...
*
Great Buddha
References
External links
Kuensel Newspaper article from 2005Bhutan Himalayan Holidays
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buddha Dordenma Statue
Bhutanese culture
Colossal Buddha statues
Bronze Buddha statues
2008 sculptures
Statues in Bhutan