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Buddha Dordenma

Bhutan

Buddha Dordenma

Great Buddha Dordenma is a gigantic Shakyamuni Buddha statue in the mountains of Bhutan celebrating the 60th anniversary of fourth king Jigme Singye Wangchuck. The statue houses over one hundred thousand smaller Buddha statues, each of which, like the Great Buddha Dordenma itself, are made of bronze

and gilded in gold. The Great Buddha Dordenma is sited amidst the ruins of Kuensel Phodrang, the palace of Sherab Wangchuk, the thirteenth Druk Desi, overlooking the southern approach to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. Construction began in 2006 and was planned to finish in October 2010, however construction did not conclude until 25 September 2015. The completed work is one of the largest Buddha stupas in the world, at 177 feet (54 m) and contains 100,000 8-inch-tall and 25,000 12-inch-tall gilded bronze Buddhas. The statue was constructed at a cost of US$47 million by Aerosun Corporation of Nanjing, China, which was sponsored by Rinchen Peter Teo a Singaporean businessman and Danny Wong, a Hong Kong based Malaysian businessman. Australian architects Buro and Structural Engineers Arup HK assisted with the project. The total cost of the entire project is well over US$100 million. The interior...

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