Visit Buddha in the Coastal Rainforest

Here’s a fascinating little curiosity:

 We maintain a trail for guests which winds through the firs and alders that make up about 2/3 of the lodge property. Only minimal grooming is done out there because we prefer to keep the trail a bit wild and undisturbed. Last Spring in clearing away the inevitable debris left behind by winter, we came across a 50 lb cast-iron Buddha tucked into the roots of a fallen tree about 25 ft off the trail. Definitely not in his natural habitat. We have no idea where he came from or how long he’s been there. After cleaning up the Buddha a bit (Buddhist friends assured me he’d be appreciative), we decided to leave him right where we’d found him – a unique add-on to the already serene setting. We’ve recently bought some prayer flags to drape around this little shrine to celebrate our Buddha and allow guests and others to find him more easily. One can speculate pretty wildly about when and how this item came to be where it is – the wildest theory being that he arrived with a Chinese fleet that some scholars have speculated visited this coast in 1421.There’s no undisputed evidence that this fleet was ever here, or is there?