Laos: a giant Chinese Buddha causes discord

Laotians are indignant that a Chinese real estate group plans to build in Vientiane a gigantic statue of Buddha in standing position, as the dominant style wants in China, and not in the sitting, privileged position in South Asia. Is.

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Laotians do not want a giant Chinese Buddha: the Chinese real estate group Wanfeng Real Estate, Shanghai, who has been building a special economic zone of 3.65 square kilometers in Vientiane, in the Swamp region of That Luang, east of the Laotian capital, is under the fire of critics. In issue, the project to erect a giant statue of Buddha, designed to become the central attraction of a tourist theme park – essentially Chinese.

The project is not new. But its implementation seems imminent, since the Deputy Prime Minister of the country, Kikeo Khaykhamphithou, visited the promoter’s premises at the end of August. That the Communist Manager – Laos has been headed since 1975 by the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party – has been congratulated, according to Laotienne official press, that this “gigantic representation of Buddha can give impetus to Buddhism in the era of globalization, all By encouraging the economic development of ZES “, goes again. But that it happened A replica of the Future statue , in the form of a Buddha standing, in the typical style of Mahayana School called “Grand Vehicle”, the majority in China and Northeast Asia, causes a shock: in Laos, where predominates, as in Thailand and Burma, the School Theravada called the “small vehicle”, we mostly represent the wake – the meaning of “Buddha” in Sanskrit – in a sitting position of meditation.

Critics have immediately rocket on social networks. “They should build a Laotian Buddha, or if they want to build it as a symbol of cooperation between the two countries, while they construct two Buddha statues – a Chinese and a Laotian side by side, has entrusted a Vientiane resident to the service in Laotian Radio Free Asia . If they are content to build only that of China, Laos will lose the face “.

” Sovereignty symbol “

For Adisorn Semyaem, Director of the Mekong Study Center at Chulaongkorn University, Bangkok, cited by Nikkei Asia magazine, “it would be unacceptable for Laotians a large statue be built in the special economic zone From the Swamp of That Luang to attract tourism, not far from the stupa of Pha That Luang, the symbol of Laotian sovereignty “.

In reality, the distinction between the two Buddhism schools is far from being as clear: there are many statues of Buddhas sitting in China. And At least one dispatch from the agency of Laotian press quoted in August 2020 or a year earlier, a Chinese manager evoke a “statue in sitting position” of a hundred meters for the Chinese economic zone. The question, according to the connoisseurs, has more to do with Laotian nationalism, facing a China which multiplies the infrastructure projects in this small country of 7.5 million inhabitants with which it shares a border.

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/Media reports.