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 The Nietang Buddha is located about 20 kilometers (about 12.4 miles) away from Lhasa. It is also called the Great Bodhisattva. This statue is about Sakyamuni sitting under a bodhi tree to tame those evils possibly to be membe from Beijing, he pas rs of Buddhism. Nietang Buddha has a very great influence among monks and adherents of Tibetan Buddhism , being considered to be the largest and most splendid of almost all stone sculptures in Tibet. It is said that when Phakpa, the prime minister of Kublai Khan in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), came back to the Sakya Monasterysed right by the place where the present Nietang Buddha is today. What's surprising was that a statue of Skyamuni that he had brought with him spoke right out loudly: 'I won't go any further. This is my place from now on.' All the famuluses were astonished. Therefore Pagpa made a decision on the spot that a temple should be built right there. As a result, this big Nietang Buddha appeared.
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