The filigree work on this massive stone column shows how much artistry they put into this shrine. I wonder if anyone knows how long it took to build and how long it would take today if you still had the artists to do it. Thanks Pekka...Dave

Both structures are fairly new. Emeishan has been one of five sacred buddhist mountains in China for hundreds of years ... closer to thousand years I believe. The statue itself on mountain top is a completely new idea, but this pavilion is a more or less faithful replica of original Golden pavilion (copper plated actually) that was build in the beginning of the 18th century. A polished copper shone like gold on sunny days on mountain top so hence the name Golden pavilion (Jinting). The real thing faced a sad fate...because of precious metal (copper) it was demolished in the 1950´s during the crazy "Great Leap Forwards"
(backwards in reality) and the metal was melted in hastily impovised furnaces...
Pekka
Dave Hamlin wrote:
> The filigree work on this massive stone column shows how much artistry they put into this
> shrine. I wonder if anyone knows how long it took to build and how long it would take today
> if you still had the artists to do it. Thanks Pekka...Dave
>