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Published: February 22nd 2007
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We were all invited through to Xindu for Barry's leaving party. He has been teaching at the same school as Sarah and Claire H in Xindu for the past 6 months, but his teaching time finished in January so he was getting ready to head off on some travels before heading back to Australia.
Since we had a day to kill Iona, Claire and I decided to use the day as a chance to visit Baoguang Si (Monastery of divine light) in Xindu during the day. Xindu isn't to far away from Chengdu so we hopped on a bus and got there in about 25-40 minutes. Once we got there we found the Monastery pretty easily and I bought some incense to light outside one of the temples. The complex was fairly large so we spent a good bit of time wandering round, taking pictures of the Pagoda which was pretty impressive, various artwork and chilling out. We attempted to get some good luck by throwing coins into the mouth of a hanging dragon and I think we all managed to get some coins in his mouth. We wandered round the gloomy Arhat hall and were shocked to see
one Arhat that looked like it had a face inside a face. I am sure if I knew more about Arhats (Buddhist saints) I would of understood what this meant but because I don't it just looked rather scary. Some of the artwork in the complex was really beautiful (see pictures) and we spent a while just sitting looking at it and taking more pictures. I didn't have my camera so was put in charge of Iona's. I got one really good picture of a monk lighting incense in the distance. It was a good day trip but yet again I managed to visit a lovely place on a cold drizzly day. I think it would be nice to go again on a sunny day in spring/summer. Possibly get some tea and eat at the vegetarian restaurant in the complex.
After wandering round Baoguang Si at a pretty leisurely pace we headed round to Xindu No.1 middle School where our friends teach. There were loads of people out for Barry's farewell and I wasn't sure how we would all get a table at the Chaun Chuan (Hot pot on sticks) restaurant. The girls had booked a pretty massive table
so we all managed to get a seat and have easy access to a hot pot bowl. The chaun chaun place we went to in Xindu is great because it has sticks with pitta bread and meatball sticks. We had been here before on a previous trip and it was this restaurant that made me start to appreciate Hot pot. When I went to get my tray for my sticks I turned it over and it was full of water! This subsequently went all down my chest. After cleaning myself up and recovering I stuffed my self on chuan chuan as usual. I was sat with Iona so we had loads of sticks as we both love chuan chuan. We ended up chatting to some nice Chinese students that were at our table and two exchange students (one from Italy, the other Germany) that are at Xindu No.1 Middle School.
When dinner had ended we all headed to KTV for a good old sing-a-long. They had booked a massive room which included some beers and the obligatory melon. We managed to fill the room and although the singing got off to a slow start by the end it was
going full throttle. The students that we were out with love KTV so they sang most of the songs. There wasn't that many English songs on but I got up to sing-a-long to a couple that did come on. One of the best one's 'God is a girl' came on so I had a good sing along to that with Barry. After KTV had finished up Claire, Iona, Ally, Fran and I all hopped in a taxi back to Chengdu. We got it for 100rmb so 20rmb each wasn't to bad. We managed to get so many of us in by getting Ally to sit on Fran's knee. Once in Chengdu we headed to the 'Hemp bar' for a couple of drinks. I ended up not staying out that long as I was a bit poor due to it being the end of the month. I was in a good mood though as I knew I only had one week of teaching left!
It ended up being a good day and night and I would definitely visit Baoguang Si again. Possibly on a sunny day next time x
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Essen
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Originally, Arhats was the disciple of Buddha Sakyamuni. Buddhsim has been greatly influenced by Chinese traditional culture, and it has been absorbed into Chinese culture. So the appearances of buddhist statues in monasteries are also much associated with chinese traditon. To some extent, it is more difficlut for westners to understand them. In Buddhism, arhats are the third highest deities after Buddha and Bodhisattva. According to Buddhism, arhats get personal enlightenment.