Ep. 104: Indra's Net of Gems
A metaphor come to life
After passing (and marveling at) the Great Buddha we met in the mountains of Zhejiang Province (see Episode 103), my traveling buddy and I toiled on up the hill to a shiny new compound, so recently completed that there were still construction materials lying around.
The focus there was a "Great Compassion Hall" featuring a massive figure of Guanyin, Bodhisattva of Compassion, with eleven heads and a thousand arms (to extend her ability to help those who call on her). Ranged around the hall were 32 other images of Guanyin. A kindly and very knowledgeable old lady let me in to the enclosure and lectured to me at length on the different figures. Unfortunately, because of my poor Chinese and her thick accent, I could glean very little. But the kindness was enough.