The offerings of the six devas

Today we visited the Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddah, on Lantau island in Hong Kong - (my son is doing a school project on Buddhism hence our decision to visit this). The statue is named Tian Tan Buddha because its base is a model of the Altar of Heaven or Earthly Mount of Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. The Buddha statue sits on a lotus throne on top of a three-platform altar. It is surrounded by six smaller bronze statues known as "The Offering of the Six Devas" and they are posed offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music to the Buddha. These offerings symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, all of which are necessary to enter into nirvana.

The Buddha is 34 metres (112 ft) tall, weighs 250 metric tons (280 short tons), and was the world's tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007.

One has to climb 240 stairs to get up to where the Buddha sits while he has his right arm raised representing the removal of affliction. I however, found it somewhat amusing,almost as if he was waving hi and thank goodness you made it up the stairs! So I decided not to blip the Buddha but rather 3 of the 6 devas which I found rather beautiful and serene as they present their offerings to Buddha.