Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 195, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1920 — GREATER THAN THE SPHINX [ARTICLE]

GREATER THAN THE SPHINX

Statue of Buddha, In Western China, la Truly One of the Marvels * es the World. For many years it has been known that about 'fifty miles from Jab-ding, in western China, there is a very large and remarkable statue of Buddha, but it was not until a very few years ago that it was ever described by an occidental. Dr. Sprague, an authority on things Chinese, visited it At the end of two days’ travel he reached the image and found it to be a colossus in size, although not so large as rumor had made it out The upper half of the hillside consists of a sandstone cliff and in this a niche fifty feet broad has been cut leaving a central core of stone that is carved in the shape of a figure seated In European style, not cross-legged, as Buddha iseo* often represented. The traveler found the height of the image to be not less than oqe hundred feet A series of five tiled roofs, descending like a flight Of steps, built in front of the image, protects it from the weather, so that only the face - can be seen from without When the doctor came within sight of the great Buddha he paused and rested from his Journey at a point near one of the gates to the walled city that lies in the valley below. As his eyes turned to the great face, which has been gilded until it shines like metal, as the immense size and perfect preservation of the idol made their impression, the thought came to him that “this is more marvelous than many of the world’s boasted wonders.” He thought of the colossi at Thebes and the Sphinx. Scarred and ruined and defaced by the hand of man and the effects of time, they are little better than lumps of battered rock. But far in the west of China sits this pld Buddha, unnoticed and almost unknown, yet greater in size than the Egyptian colossi, with his proportions preserved intact, with temples about and below him, and with the priests in attendance to keep the incense burning at his feet. There he sits, grimly gazing out over the tiled roofs of the city that lies before him.