In 1936, a year after Jungle Gardens opened to the public, Robert M. Youngs and Ernest B. Tracy of New York City gave McIlhenny a Buddha statue they had found in a Manhattan warehouse and hoped to place among his Asian flora. The statue's earlier history is uncertain, though oral tradition held that twelfth-century emperor and artist Hui-tsung made it and that a rebel Chinese general later sent it to the U.S. before being caught and executed. After the statue reached Avery Island, McIlhenny chose its site and created a setting for it by digging a lagoon, raising a rocky mound, and building a small bamboo-motif temple. He set the statue inside on a lotus blossom pedestal of wood and copper, landscaped the grounds with rare Asian plants, surrounded the mound with Chinese juniper and bamboos, formed seven ten-foot hills planted in distinct colors of Chinese azalea, and added an arched stone bridge and Chinese iris around the lagoon to create a reflecting pool. In this carefully designed setting, the Buddha quickly became a focal point for visitors to Jungle Gardens.