Located atop the Palongsan Mountain near the city of Daegu in South Korea, stands a large statue of Buddha. Statues of this kind are not rare in Asia, but this one stands out thanks to its hat, so much so that it is known as Gatbawi Buddha, meaning Stone Hat Buddha. The granite sculpture is over 13 feet (four meters) tall and wears a wide, six-inch (15 centimeters) thick, flat stone as a hat or a gat, a traditional piece of Korean headwear. The statue dates back to the 9th-century…
