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Travels with my Xiong di...Hidden Gansu...The God of Fire & Immortal Cliffs Grottoes. We met a grizzled old man by the road past Maiji Shan who raised a wizened finger and pointed..."that way."
"The immortal shows the way with lamps" we had heard.
He had no lamps that we could see...but a smell of paraffin and coal dust...closest thing to an immortal in these parts we thought.
So that way we went...winding up narrow roads without sides...twenty kilometres...meandering as if following the crooked finger of the grizzled man.
Then Robin stops the car and we climb ancient steps...600 steps as it turned out...past broken dwellings...climbing through a forest that reeked of ancientness.
Through a moon gate...a long sweeping cliff overhang with temples as if sheltering from sun or rain...the leaves from the trees whispering no more.
Gansu has a silence like no other...the history of the old Silk Road popping up here and there.
The God of Fire glares at me and I raise my sunnies to glare back...a hand coming from a black raincoat to stop me.
I hesitate.
Can I take the risk?
Is he the
Kitchen God, Zao Jun who will report my deeds in his annual report to the Jade Emperor in Heaven?
Will I get a good report or a not so good one?
This is the gathering place of the Immortals...should fit right in I think.
I'm not known as Lao Ge...wise older brother for nothing!
******
The Kitchen God Zao Jun was once a mortal man...a married man whose eyes wandered into adultery with a young girl...leaving his wife for her.
He was punished for his infidelity...bad luck plaguing his life...struck down with blindness...the young girl abandoning him...resorting to begging for his daily bread.
One day while begging for alms he stumbled on the home of his former wife...who notwithstanding his transgressions pitied him and invited him in.
She lavished a fabulous meal upon him...he not recognising her due to his blindness.
Overcome by her kindness he cried...told her his story...weeping in remorse and contrition.
And as he wept his eyes were opened...his sight restored...seeing his former wife bestowing affection upon him.
Overcome with shame he threw himself into the kitchen hearth or stove...the flames consuming all of him save his trailing leg.
His wife built a shrine for him over the stove...offerings made to him on his birthday each year thereafter...he reporting the deeds of the households to Yu Huang...paper effigies soaked in honey to sweeten his words to the Jade Emperor...or to keep his lips stuck together.
******
Immortal Cliffs Grottoes 65 kms from Tianshui and 20 kms from the carved mountain grottoes of Maiji Shan is a hidden gem of 3 cliffs of grottoes or 5 sites on the East, West and South cliffs of a green wigged pimple of a sandstone mountain rising from the Gansu landscape as a Daoist celebration of the Ming & Qing Dynasties.
After climbing the 600 steps we walked around the mountain on a pilgrimage of discovery like no other.
It struck me we would not have discovered the Immortal Cliffs if we had not met the old man and followed his wizened finger to be here.
The temples and God of Fire under the sweeping rock overhang of the West cliff...along forested trails to the East Cliff...past graves of past monks marked by white stupas like mushrooms sprouting from the base of a cliff
wall...to a moon gate and the magical, ethereal South Cliff.
A cliff with rows and rows of tiny arches now empty cut into the sandstone wall...maybe a 1,000 Buddhas Wall in days long past..but now some cavities with tiny figures chatting...a doll like deity with it's head and shoulders...it's wooden body standing on a lotus...pegged to the wall...it's lower extremities and clothes long gone...a female deity smiling at its feet in adoration and reassure.
Full size deities in spectacular tiny temples thus adorned.
There was noone there but two brothers wandering around...the wise older brother Lao Ge with his Chinese younger brother Xiong di...a cliff grotto site decayed but possessing the aura of it once must have been great...the spirits of the old Silk Road resting...but probably smiling on us from thereabout.
*****
We came to a lake...mosquitoes rising to greet us...the cliffs reflected in the quiet waters.
Immortal Lake...the place where the Immortals bathed...an oasis in this otherwise dusty place.
The mountain of the Immortal Cliffs smiled down on us...the ambience of hidden Gansu so so evident in this place.
Across a bridge and to our surprise...electric buggies waiting to take
us on roads around the mountain back to the entrance where Robin's car waits.
The God of Fire, the Kitchen God must have made a favourable report to the Jade Emperor in Heaven we reckoned...what a great time we have had in the Maiji Shan scenic area.
Those hard to get to sites in Hidden Gansu are so worth it.
And then there are the Water Cave Grottoes that you can only reach by boat when the lake is not iced up...maybe.next time.
To be continued... Relax & Enjoy,
Dancing Dave
P.S. Listen to the music video and smile...a few pics from the Maiji Shan grottoes before Immortal Cliffs pics on the other pages.
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Readingfcboi
Alan Atkinson
China
China is next on my list, whether this year or next. Great to see you on the road again! This hidden site looks worth a visit