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Show Buddha Statue Rivals Sphinx 1 p0ri many years it has been known that C j""1 about fifty miles from Jah-ding. in jj western China, there Is a very large J aiw remarkable statue of Buddha, but it vi-as not until a very few years ago that It was ever described by an Occidental. h Dr. Sprague. an authority on things Chi- " ncse. visited it. At the end of two davs' travel t 1 he reached the Image and found it to be a i i ! colossus In size, although not so large as 5 ! rumor had made it out. The upper half of the hillside consists of a sandstone cliff, and ' In this a niche fifty fett broad has been A cut leaving a central core of stone that is I' carved In the shape of a figure seated in J European style, not cross-legged, as Buddha S i. so often represented. The traveller found 5 the height of the image to be not less than " ono hundred feet. A series of five tiled roofs, descending like i a flight of steps, built hi front of the Image. protects it from the weather, so that only '., th face can he seen 'rem without. , I When the doctor came within sight of the greal Buddha be paused and rested from his '.i Journey at a point near one of the gates to ' ' , the walled cily that lies in the valley below. . As his eyes turned to the great, facP. which 1 1 , has been gilded until it shines like metal, as 1 1 IH the Immense size and perfect preservation ( j of the Idol made their impression, the thought f '1 came to him that "this Is more marvellous than many of the'. world's boa?ted wonder?." J Hp thought of the colossi at Thebes. and " J the Sphinx. Scarred and ruined and defaced ' by the hand of man and tlie effects of time, 2 they aro little better than lumps of battered' rock But far In the west of China sits this !; old BuddhQ, unnoticed and almost unknown. yet greater in size than the Egyptian co- jj lossi, with his proportions preserved Intact. " jH with temples above and below him. and' with tho prlosts In attendance to keep the Jl Incense burning at his fect. There he sita. r ' iH grimly gazing out over the tiled roofs of th ) 'll city that 'lies, before him. I 'll J ;yjgji j 1 1, in 1 1 n 1 1 ij L --;r B |