1961 Magazine Fall 2016

HISTORY & TRAVEL
25 meters tall (approximately 80 feet tall). You can
see the head of the statue from a few different places
as you travel around the island. So you know it’s big
but you really can’t gage its side until you’re standing
underneath it. He is one Big Buddha! The monks there
are constantly chanting and it’s very hypnotic. There
was a very long queue to be blest by an old Buddha
Priest. I of course stood the queue and got the blessing,
after all you can’t have too many blessings in this life.
This was a small but very busy resort town on Phi
Phi Island (pronounced ‘Pee Pee’). Not many people
were walking through the village itself as it was hot
and extremely humid. There were a number of bars,
souvenir shops and restaurants there, however (like
everyone else) the best place to be was in the sea.
Walking the coastline was a great way to spend the
afternoon. I even noticed the remnants of a large
clam shell, the kind that yield pearls, taking me back
to the treasure thing and the thought of diving for
pearls came to mind lol. What can I say; I’m just an
adventurer at heart.
The entire project was built completely from donations,
which is simply amazing. Even the road leading up
to the big Buddha was donated by someone. At the
temple you can pay approximately 26US dollars and
put a message on one of the stones which will be
used to complete the building. Every stone and tile
on the building has been paid for the same way and
of course the proceeds go to buy some of the other
materials required to complete the building. It’s an
amazing project and a very impressive working temple
in the making. By the way, here’s a seven minutes
happy meditation broken down step by step for your
convenience, give it a go when you have a chance, it
worked for me! It was a great place to visit and I left
the temple with a feeling of peace. What an experience
and I was absolutely happy I went.
The next day was spent going to the ‘Big Buddha’.
Never having been there before I was absolutely sure
of was with a name like the Buddha had to be big, but
wait until I tell you, the thing was massive. I would
estimate that the Big Buddha is approximately 24 or
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Fall 2016 1961 Magazine