The Puning Temple in Chengde in Hebei, China was built in 1755 during the reign of Qianlong Emperor (1735-1796 AD) .The Puning Temple houses the sculpture of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara or more popularly known to Chinese as Guan Yin. Avalokiteśvara embodies the compassion of all Buddhas and by far is the most widely revered bodhisattva in Buddhism. Bodhisattva which in Sanskrit means enlightenment-being ,comes to mean different thing to different people.The term was used by the Buddha in the Pali Canon to refer to himself both in his previous lives and as a young man in his current life, prior to his enlightenment, in the period during which he was working towards his own liberation. That's according to Theravada Buddhism. In Mahayana Buddhism, Bodhisattva is a person who already has a considerable degree of enlightenment and seeks to use their wisdom to help other human beings to become liberated themselves. All said, there's one thing for sure: Bodhisattvas are honoured in many famous artworks and the one in Puning Temple, standing at 22.28-meter high and weighing 110 ton, is the world's tallest wooden sculpture of Avalokiteśvara and hence the Puning Temple is often called the Big Buddha Temple.
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