I've said before I like big statues: they're inherently awesome.
Here's a Buddhist one I don't recall seeing before, of Guanyin and it's in Nanshan, Hainan, China:
I got this off Wikipedia, and am supposed to give attribution to this, so here we go: By Fanghong - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3355308
The statue part is considerably bigger than the Statue of Liberty:
The statue ranks among the tallest in the world: 78 meters in height without including its pedestal, and 108 meters if the pedestal is included. (For comparison, the American Statue of Liberty is 93 meters tall when its pedestal is included, and 46 meters without.)[3]
The Wikipedia entry talks about state interest in the place, though (in a way I am not entirely sure I should trust):
The temple and statue are owned and operated by two front groups of the Shanghai State Security Bureau, a branch of the Ministry of State Security, as a way to exert ideological control and influence over the southeast Asian Buddhist community and counter the influence of Indian Buddhism.[4]: 171–185 The temple promotes Chinese government-approved religious practices known as "South China Sea Buddhism."[4]: 171–185 The temple's religious messaging has been managed by the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department since 2018.[4]: 171–185
The official website does gush a bit:
The relation between Nanshan (the South Mountain) and Guan Yin bodhisattva (Buddha) is predestined and historically extended so long. It is said that among the Guanyin Bodhisattva’s 12 wishes, the second was to live in the South China Sea. Hence，Guanyin is also called South Sea Guanshiyin. Nanshan, located at the coast of South China Sea, resembles a huge legendary turtle, for which it was called Aoshan and deemed as Guanyin’s riding animal in ancient times. In Qiongzhou, the legend has passed for long that Guanyin has ever made the tour to the South China Sea in her effort to save the miserable masses. Everyone in this area praises her for her benevolence. According to the legend, the two islands Dongmao and Ximao were formed of some clay carelessly dropped by Guanyin when she flew with it on her tour of salvation.
Anyway, I wouldn't mind visiting Hainan. Now I have more reason to...
