Since we're having Big Buddha Week here on About.com Buddhism, let me introduce you to this big boy. He is the reclining buddha of Wat Pho temple in Bangkok, and he is 151 feet (46 meters) long and 49 feet (15 meters) high. He's smaller than the Monywa Buddha of Burma, which is 300 feet (90 meters) long, but still impressive.

Crafted in the 19th century, the buddha's body is covered in gold plating. He has mother-of-pearl inlay on his eyes and the soles of his feet. He is sheltered in a building on the grounds of the Wat Pho monastery complex in Bangkok. Since he takes up most of the space in the building, photographers can't step back and take a full-length, straight-ahead photograph of the buddha. This is one of the few photographs I could find that included both head and feet.

Photo Credit: © Alessio Fiore | Dreamstime.com

The Times of India reports that His Holiness the Dalai Lama said the current global economic meltdown comes from a lack of spirituality among people.

"Lack of spirituality and culture is the main cause behind the rampant corruption in the world. People have become selfish and materialistic, which has led to the economic slowdown," The Dalai Lama said.

His Holiness was speaking at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS) in Sarnath, India, where he is engaged in a week-long teaching.

My colleague Kallie Szczepanski, Guide to Asian History, links to this 8th century Korean buddha and asks her readers if they have a favorite buddha.

That's a good question. I've looked at the biggest buddhas; what are the most beautiful buddhas? Is there a buddha figure somewhere that particularly moves you? If you want to nominate beautiful bodhisattvas, that's OK. I might do a future photo gallery of beautiful buddhas if I can get enough good photos. Oh, and you can leave answers at Kallie's blog, too.

I have two personal favorites. One is this old buddha from Longmen Grottoes, also shown in the photo in this post. The other is the 13th-century Java statue of Prajnaparamita (also here).

I don't know much about Shingon Buddhism, other than its history. If anyone reading this has some experience with Shingon, I would love to hear from you.

My understanding is that Shingon was established in Japan by Kukai (774-835) early in the 9th century. Many of the teachings and rituals of Shingon are not made public, but are passed orally from teacher to student. The center of Shingon Buddhism remains Koyasan, or Mount Koya, a monastery built by Kukai.

I bring this up because of an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin by Pat Gee that profiles the Shingon Shu Hawaii temple. The minister, the Rev. Reyn Yorio Tsuru, is making a special effort to reach out to young people and others in the community and get them interested in Shingon Buddhism. However, in order to survive, the Shingon Shu Hawaii congregation has had to sever ties with institutional Shingon in Japan.