Advertisement
Published: August 24th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Saturday we went to the Jade Buddha Temple, which was built in the early 1900s according to the architectural style of the Song dynasty. It's a fully-functioning temple, complete with resident Buddhist monks who conduct services and otherwise go about their business with the tourists watching. We went at a good time - in the morning - when there weren't so many tourists and we were given the full attention of the staff. For those wondering, by "staff" I'm referring to the people who check your tickets when you enter, and avail themselves to tourists who have any questions. Before we entered we had to pay an entry fee of 20 yuan each, which is equivalent to about $3.10. We were also faced with a large sign in English and Chinese at the entrance that stipulated a long list of "don'ts" before entering the temple. As you know, this is an officially atheist country and there are strict controls on local religious and spiritual activities so the list included stipulations not to distribute literature, engage in subversive activities, provide spiritual healing services for a fee (they cited Qi Gong as an example), etc.
We entered the temple and were immediately
greeted by a very friendly staff member who suggested we follow a path around the temple to allow us to take in all the sights (and walk through the gift shops in the process). Mind you the gift shops here sold products at very reasonable prices and we were told all the proceeds go towards supporting the monks, upkeep of the temple and local charitable initiatives that the temple is involved with. So I didn't mind browsing the goods - they were actually quite beautiful and I'll definitely be back to purchase something. The staff member asked where we were from and when we said Canada he started asking whether we were from the English or French part. Very impressive! On our way out of the temple a couple of hours later I heard him talking to his colleagues and they all said "jia-na-da", looked at me and smiled. I was really impressed he remembered and found it important enough to share with his colleagues who were very interested in our country of origin.
Anyway words can't possibly do justice to the beauty of this temple so that's why there are so many photos attached to this posting. I've
never been to a functioning Buddhist temple and it was truly a sight to see. To my surprise there were dozens of ordinary Chinese - including many young people - who came here to pray and worship, who casually would burn incense in front of the many altars and kneel in front of the statues of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas, each of which represented everything from health to protection to prosperity. In one building there were four statues of heavenly kings that are believed to govern the weather. In my head I made a quick plea for some decent weather in the final weeks of summer in Toronto, so hopefully this will help with all that rain lately.
As we continued on to the gift shop, it was more a combination of gift shop and art gallery. It was filled with lots of carvings - from new to old and large to small - made by artists from across China. At the entrance was a carving of a laughing Buddha with a large belly which the shopkeeper suggested we rub for good luck. Beside it was a huge carving (about four feet by four feet), made out of a
single block of wood, of a mountain range inhabited by Buddhist scholars who were studying texts among the trees and animals. Apparently this piece was carved a thousand years ago. The amount of antiquities like this that we've seen almost makes one wonder if it's truly that old but I'm quickly finding this is a country that never fails to impress. Other sculptures in the shop included numerous jade sculptures of Buddhist figures and the various animals from the Chinese zodiac. There was also an artist on hand who was producing paintings of mountainscapes using the outer part of his hand to rub ink on the paper. He had no brushes or other implements with which to paint.
As we exited the shop and continued on our path we came across another building in which there was a group of monks chanting and hitting a series of chimes and gongs laid out around a long table. If you try to think about the sound of this chanting, then the smell of incense burning and the sight of worshippers kneeling and bowing in front of Buddhist statues you will begin to get an image of what it was like to
be here.
The central building at the temple housed three huge statues of what I assume are important Buddhist figures - each of which I'd say was about 20 feet high and sitting cross-legged. These were surrounded by additional statues that lined the perimiter of the room. On the outside of the building there were hundreds of small red ribbons tied to anything - from stair railings to statues - which must have been prayer ribbons. You can take a look at the photos to see what they looked like. Continuing on our trek we eventually came across the centrepiece of the entire temple, which was the Jade Buddha. While photos weren't allowed, we had to climb a set of stairs to a large room where we could view the statue from a distance of about 50 feet. It was about 6 feet high and carved entirely out of jade. I'm told that the statue was originally carved in Myanmar, and is actually part of a collection of several that were brought back to China, via Tibet, by a Chinese Buddhist monk. The room was very ornate, and if you looked at the ceiling you would see what I
assume was a representation of heaven, surrounded by about 50 very small statues of Buddha. Later in our tour we entered the room of 1000 Buddhas which housed the exact same statues all along the walls, but (as the name suggests) in much greater numbers. I took some photos of sections of the wall in this next huge room (which was more like a gymnasium with a stage) to give you an idea of what it looked like.
As we walked around the temple we could also see the outer wall of the building which housed the monks' apartments. At one point we saw a window where a monk had laid a couple of planks to support several small potted plants - what a lifestyle these people must lead. Most of the monks seemed to speak English, and the increasing number of tourists as the day progressed didn't seem to bother them in the least. We even came across one talking on a mobile phone - so at least we know they still keep up with the times.
So while I know this doesn't totally give justice to the temple, hopefully by supplementing this with photos (or maybe
the photos are supplemented by the text...) you can get a picture of the beauty of this place. We left feeling really invigorated and contemplative of what we just saw. We'll definitely be back. Later in the day we did some more "gym shopping" and found a place I think will fit the bill. We'll go join once we ensure our residence permit situation works out ok. We were beginning to get hungry so we looked around at some restaurants and decided to go back to Element Fresh, near the Ritz-Carlton. We took a table upstairs near a window where we looked over the hustle and bustle of Nanjing West on a Saturday night. We each had a glass of wine, and I ordered some Vietnamese spring rolls and Asian-style tilapia while Jen had a plate of pita/vegetables with hummus and a large garden salad. The food was delicious, the ambience was superb, and the bill was less than $50. I could deal with this for six months.
On the cab ride back to the hotel we passed a park where there were numerous people ballroom dancing. In Shanghai, people make great use of the parks. In every neighbourhood
park on varying nights over the week, locals gather, put on some music and start ballroom dancing. There's a park across the street from our hotel and we've seen people doing it there as well so we definitely want to try that out one of these days.
So that concludes another day in Shanghai. One more day before I start work on Monday!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0239s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb