Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Wuyie and Jinghai Temples

Wuyie and Jinghai temples were two very similar cites, notable for very different reasons, but their appeal was not in their appearance, which was rather standard for Wutai temples and visible in the first image which is of the entrance to Jinghai, but in their history and what they represent. 

Jinghai temple was fascinating for its use of Tibetan Buddhist imagery.  First, the outside of the many of the temples were decorated with painted Mandalas, representations of the cosmos from a Buddhist perspective.  One of these is pictured in the second image.  Inside one of the temples, an even more interesting Tibetan image was visible, but not able to be photographed.  To the left side of the statue in the Sakayamuni hall was painted a Yabyum Tantric Sex image, left uncensored and mostly undamaged.  This was an astonishing find, as all Yabyum images in China are supposed to be censored, and most were destroyed or damaged during the Cultural Revolution.  Yet here we found one overlooked by the Chinese government.  These images are very important to Tibetan Buddhism, and it is seen as unfortunate by Tibetan Buddhists that they are not allowed to openly display them in China, so it was very special to find one left alone.

Wuyie Temple is important for its role in the Boxer Uprising of 1900, in which the Chinese government took action against Westerners living and working in China, most notably Christian missionaries, particularly Catholics.  Wuyie Temple was one of the staging areas for this uprising, where Boxers would gather and watch Chinese Operas, writing the names of powerful spirit-characters in the operas on paper which was then burned and mixed with water, then consumed in an attempt to imbue oneself with the powers of those spirits.  After doing this, the Boxers would go out and attack Christians in nearby Taiyuan city, which was the location of the bloodiest of the Boxer massacres, an event I will talk more about when I blog about our stay in Taiyuan.

That's all for now, next up will be Twin Pagoda Temple.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Tayuan Temple

Tayuan temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple which is home to a massive White Dagoba said to house one of the 84,000 Shahara relics of Sakayamuni, was the location of some of our most profound experiences with monks at Wutai mountain.  First, we witnessed a monk listening to an MP3 player, an incongruous picture which puzzled many of us.  Later, while we stood in a group listening to our tour guide Mary explain some aspect of the temple, a monk took a video of us on his cell phone.  We asked Dr Clark why monks would have these sorts of luxury items, and he explained that many of the monks at Wutai mountain are not, in fact, Buddhist monks but people hired by the tour organizations to perform as essentially costumed characters, like Mickey Mouse at Disney World. 

In contrast to these pseudo-monks, we had a genuine encounter with an actual Tibetan monk on pilgrimage to Wutai from Tibet, picture in the second picture.  The monk sat down beside Micheal while he wrote in his journal and started asking him questions in Chinese.  We called Dr Clark over and he translated for us.  The monk was asking us if we had ever been to India, as he had recently gone there on pilgrimage and found it to be profound and inspiring as a spiritual place.  He wrote his name in Micheal's journal, but in Tibetan, which is nearly impossible to romanize, so we still don't know how to say or write it.  I found myself later wondering how this devout Tibetan monk felt about the pseudo-monks with cell phones and MP3 players, and how his spiritual experience at Wutai contrasted with his experience in India.

The final picture is of a monk who had just finished meditating under a tree, a common practice in reference to the story of the Buddha achieving awakening while sitting under a Bodhi tree.  I took a picture because this monk seemed to exist as a sort of in-between of the very devout Tibetan monk and the fake Wutai-land monks with cell phones, as he lived on Wutai as a devout monk.  I wondered, too, how he perceived the fake monks.  This disparity between the illusion of these monasteries as active and thriving places full of devouts when in fact most are actors, and the fact that there are actual devout monks who live in and come to these places defined in many ways my experience at Tayuan.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Xiantang Temple

Next on our study tour we stopped at Xiantang Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China, dating back to the Han dynasty, and the biggest temple at Mount Wutai.  Xiantang features seven halls, three of which we visited; the Sakayamuni Hall, the Guanyin Hall, and the Manjusri Hall.  A few of us also ventured further into the temple to see the Bronze Hall, featured in the fourth picture above.  The interior of the Bronze Hall, which was as its name implies created entirely of burnished bronze, was lined with ten thousand small statues of the Buddha.  We were not able to go inside the Bronze Hall, but we could peer in through the doorway, and it was difficult for me to really take in the craftsmanship and the number of man hours it would have taken to make the inside of the Bronze Hall with pre-modern technology. 

The first picture above is not specific to Xiantang.  It shows a stone turtle, on the back of which was set a giant stone tablet which served as a label and an information sign post for visitors to the various temples on Wutai during the Qing dynasty.  The stone turtles were used as the bases for these signs because turtles are long lived, and were thought to be well suited to carrying the information on the tablets into the future.  Based on how much is still known about all the temples at Wutai, the turtles seem to have succeeded. 

The second picture is of a procession of monks which we saw walk through the courtyard of Xiantang temple, followed by a group of pilgrims carrying incense sticks.  The procession was fascinating to watch, in large part because in spite of the apparent solemnity of the occasion, some of the monks seemed only half-interested in their chanting and meditative walking.  Seeing this made me wonder whether or not the spirituality of the monks at Wutai is affected by the huge amounts of tourism on the mountain.

The third picture is of Micheal at the entrance to the Thousand Hands Guanyin Hall.  We were not allowed to take photographs inside the halls, but in taking this picture of Micheal at the entrance to this hall I managed to capture some of the statue of Guanyin within, by chance.  So now you get to enjoy my dumb-luck photography!

The fourth picture is of the bronze hall which was by far the most striking thing about Xiantang temple.  It stood at the top of a tall staircase at the very back of the temple.  The hall was made of solid bronze, as were the two pagodas in front of it.  The inner wall of the hall was covered in bronze statues of the Buddha, all of which reflected the light of a single candle stand to illuminate the entire hall.  I wish we'd been able to photograph inside the Bronze Hall, it is extremely difficult for me to try and convey what it was really like.

Next up: Tayuan Temple!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Pusading Temple

The next place we visited on Study Tour was Pusading Temple, the favored temple of the emperors of the Qing dynasty.  It was built from 471 to 499 AD, repaired and renamed the Great Manjusri Temple in 1403 AD.  Pusading is notable for its yellow roofs and imperial dragon imagery, featuring the five-clawed dragon of the emperor, neither of which were allowed to be displayed anywhere but the Forbidden City and other imperial palaces.  Pusading is allowed these icons because it served as the temporary imperial palace when Qing Emperors would visit Wutai.  The yellow roofs are especially important, as the temple belongs to the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism, a sect which prefers  yellow roofs but were only allowed to use them with imperial permission.  Pusading is one of the few Yellow Hat temples to feature yellow roofs in China.

The first picture is of the Sakayamuni Hall at Pusading. This photo clearly shows the important yellow roofs that set Pusading apart from other Chinese temples.  The second picture is of the Pusading Incense Burner, the largest incense burner at Wutai mountain.  Interestingly, this item was only added to the temple in 2000, a gift from a Tibetan monastery.  The third photo is of a group of monks we saw sitting across from the Sakayamuni hall, talking to some pilgrims.  We also saw a Buddhist nun meditating in front of a statue in one of the smaller halls.  I have a photo where she is visible, but I am not sure it would be respectful to post it online.  The fourth picture is of the steps leading down to the road from Pusading.  In modern times, this staircase serves as Pusading's exit, though it was originally its entrance.  The glass-covered section is the Dragon Way, the steps reserved for use by the Emperor and Empress when they would visit Pusading.  The Dragon Way has been amazingly well preserved.

Another interesting thing we saw at Pusading was a statue of Manjusri covered in drapery.  Initially, this did not stand out to me, but Dr. Clark pointed out that the statue was likely originally created as a Yabyum image, a symbol of tantric sex, an important part of Tibetan Buddhism.  The Chinese Communist Party has made an effort to censor all such images in China, and this would explain why most of Manjusri's statue was covered in cloth, with only his head visible.

That's all for Pusading!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Shuzaing Temple

Here's a quick post about Shuzaing Temple, the first temple we visited on Wutaishan.  I'll do longer posts on the other temples, because many of them were a bit more interesting.  The most notable things about Shuzaing were the Great Manjusri Hall, featuring a gigantic statue of the Boddhisattva Manjusri lined in gold riding a giant blue lion, and the crowd of merchants selling incense sticks, lotus candles, prayer beads, and prayer flags as well as Buddhist trinkets in front of the temple steps.  This was my first exposure to the commercialization of Buddhism at Wutaishan, which became a rather consistent theme throughout the rest of the study tour, as well as the commercialization of other Chinese historical sites. 

The first picture is of me standing at the bus checkpoint at the entrance to Wutai mountain.  Behind me you can see the Wutai Valley, which was absolutely beautiful.  Wutai is a five-peaked mountain, with a valley between the five peaks, and a different Boddhisattva is said to dwell on each peak.  The valley, however, and therefore the area itself is thought of as the dwelling place of the Boddhisattva of Wisdom, Manjusri.  Most of the Wutai mountain temples are dedicated the Manjusri, including Shuzaing.

Shuzaing was a beautiful temple on its interior, an area we were not allowed to photograph, but in many ways it was not all that different from the other temples we visited, which were more interesting and which I will discuss more in the future. The second photo above is of the main hall exterior at Shuzaing.  On the right you can see the ritual bell.  Inside this structure was a truly massive statue of Manjusri which we were unfortunately not allowed to photograph.  It was easily fifteen feet tall, covered in gold and jade.  Absolutely magnificent.

The third picture I've posted was not at Shuzaing but at the town we stayed in that night.  The town was full of tiny shrines to all number of things.  This was one we stumbled across, dedicated to a rock.  None of us could read Chinese, so we still don't really know what was up with this shrine.  It may have been Daoist, as Daoists are more often the persons who practice worship of natural objects, and Daoism also regards Wutai mountain with special interest.

That's all for today!  We went to Karaoke tonight and I'm way tired.  It was super fun though.  Hannah, Matt, and I sang Poker Face.  Also, Eric and I sang Power by Kanye West.  Good times.

Study Tour Part 1: Hanging Temple!

Ok!  I've extracted the over 900 pictures from my memory card and picked a few for each location on the Study Tour.  I'm going to post them one location at a time and talk about each place we visited.  First up is the Hanging Temple!

The first picture up there is of Hannah and I at the approach to the Hanging Temple, a huge, thousand year old Cha'an Buddhist temple famous for its apparently gravity-defying architecture and for its Sanjiao Hall, which venerate all three great Chinese teachers; Confucius, Lao Tzu of Daoism, and the Buddha.  I say apparently gravity-defying because those columns in reality support nothing, the temple is built into the cliff side such that it is held up by its own weight.  The temple was a sight to behold, nestled in a very weather protected location.  The cliff it is built into protects it from rain, and a cliff opposite to it protects it from wind and from the sun, so that the temple is one of the most in tact ancient structures in China.

The second picture is a side shot of the hanging temple, showing most of the structure.  It was exciting, and a bit frightening for some, to walk out onto the hanging floor of the temple.

The third picture is of Dr. Clark at the top of a staircase leading to an upper level of the temple.  This shot shows how far outward the temple is built, and also how narrow the walkways are.  That wall there on the staircase?  It's about knee high.  Also notable in this shot are the pillars which supposedly hold up parts of the temple.  These do nothing, in spite of their appearance.

The fourth picture is of a statue of the Boddhisattva Guanyin and two guardian figures.  Most of the interior spaces at the temples we visited did not allow photography, but this room for some reason did not disallow it.

So that's the Hanging Temple.  It was a really fascinating place to visit, my first real Buddhist Temple experience.  Those of us who had been in Buddhism class were pointing things out all over the place while walking in and out of the temple rooms, pointing at statues and telling our classmates the names of various Buddhas and Boddhisattvas.  The Hanging Temple was very cool, and was probably one of the most memorable temples we visited. 

Next up will be a post on Shuzaing Temple, the first temple we visited on Wutai Mountain, the most famous Buddhist site in China!


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Back!

So the Shanxi Study Tour is over!  It was a fantastic experience, full of temples, ancient statues, not-so-ancient statues, learning, street food, and Shanxi Opera (omgbestthingever), and I will have a lot to blog about it in the future, but for now I am super super super tired and need to eat and sleep.  Everyone is still alive, and on Monday we start Chinese at Minzu!  Wish us all luck! 

P.S. The photo is of faded Cultural Revolution propaganda on the side of the Sakayamuni hall of Xiantang temple, the oldest and biggest buddhist temple at Wutai mountain.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Food!

It's been an exciting day of adventure here in Beijing.  First, we received bottled water and toilet paper from Dr. Clark, two necessities not provided in our rooms, followed by a tour of the important locations on campus such as the ATM, the school store, and our classroom building.  After the tour, Dr. Clark treated us all to breakfast! And later, after changing our money at the bank, to lunch! The food in China is amazing, better by far than Chinese food in the states. Everything is complex in taste and texture, and we're eating things we'd never dreamed of trying before. 

The first picture is of one of the dishes we had at breakfast, consisting of celery, black fungus, and chunks of pure gluten, which Kyle, Hannah, Sadie, Amy, Annalisa, and I thought was some sort of weird meat until Dr. Clark corrected us.  We also had Dragon Buns, which were amazing, Sesame Balls, which were also amazing, and string tofu, which apparently tastes like nothing BUT tofu.  And it, too, was amazing!

The second picture is of the giant portrait of Mao hanging above the stairwell of the restaurant where we ate for lunch; a Henan food place touted by Dr. Clark as Mao's favorite restaurant.  We ate tiny unshelled shrimp, incredibly spicy tofu and pork, and pig ears!  It was a grand old time.

So fear not!  We are eating, and it is fantastic.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Dawn of the First Day

Well, we're here, for reals. I woke up at 5:30 AM Beijing Time this morning, which is super weird. It was not yet fully light out. Interestingly, 5:30 in Bejing is about 2:30 PM in Seattle, which would be me sleeping in a couple hours back home. Hopefully my already terrible sleeping habits will be something of a buffer against jetlag. 

The picture above is of my room, though it may not end up being my room in the end, as we're still figuring out the roommate situation.  It is very messy because we were very tired last night and our suitcases sort of just exploded.  It's 6:43 right now, which means I've got about two hours before we meet Dr. Clark for breakfast.  My computer charger does need an adapter, so I'm not sure how I'll pass the time.  Course reading, probably.

Speaking of reading, on the twelve hour flight from Seattle to Beijing I slept for maybe three hours, and spent the remaining nine reading the entirety of Larry Niven's "Ringworld Engineers".  It was quite good, though I got tired of reading the faux-swear words "TANJ" and "FUNKT" every other page. 

Tonight at 11:00 we are getting on a train (MORE TRAVELING YAY) out to Shanxi province, where we'll be touring a number of religious and historical sites over the next eight days.  I'll snap pictures, but I'm not sure I'll be able to make any posts until we get back. This study tour will amount to a solid 90% of our "Cultural Oddessy" class, which means that after this week I'll have basically finished one of my four classes this semester (five if you count all eight credits of Mandarin).  That's sort of cool, but also sort of intimidating. 

Later today I'll try to get a picture of our building and Minzu's sign to post.  Our building is really posh, more like a hotel than a dorm room.  There's a lobby with a staffed counter, elevators, and decorations everywhere.  The rooms are basically hotel rooms as well, with two desks, two beds, a TV, a minifridge, and a bathroom with a shower. 

That's all for now.  I'm going to go find something to do for the next couple hours.


In Beijing!

We've landed in Beijing and checked into our dorms at Minzu!  The flight was long and tiring, but we're all alive and no one accidentally tried to bring anything illegal into China.  Beijing so far is fascinating.  On the bus ride from the airport to the dorms (which is more like a hotel than a dorm, but more on that in another post) almost every building sign I saw was neon red.  Anyway, I'm super tired, and I am going to sleep.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Packing!

I've packed and I'm ready to go!  Mostly.  Anyway, I'm posting this because it's fun to post and because I need to figure out how pictures work.  Turns out I can't actually embed images in text when I post from e-mail (something I learned through about an hour of trial-and-error), which is the only reliable way for me to post in China.  Instead, I have to just attach images and refer to them via numerical ordered citation.  So, I will be doing that in this post, and all posts involving pictures to come.

1)Hey!  Look!  It's me!  Looking very excited!  Why am I so excited? I just bought a bunch of stuff and put in bags so that when I show up in China I won't be utterly destitute like the impoverished college student I am!  Hooray


2)First and most import is my carry-on suitcase!  Why so important?  Because THIS bag, I can be sure, will arrive with me at my intended destination!  As such, in contains all the necessities; a journal, a little memo book, a first-aid kit containing plenty of antacid and pepto-bismol for the explosive diarrhea I have been assured I will contract,  two t-shirts, a long-sleeved t-shirt, two flannel shirts, one semi-formal shirt, one pair of jeans, six pairs of socks (because socks get dirty) my toiletries, a little bathroom bag thing, a pair of flip-flops, and eight pairs of underwear, in case the pepto-bismol just isn't enough.


3)Next up is my regular ol' suitcase.  This guy holds my school supplies, an extra razor, the perfect number of sticky-notes (tons), rubber bands in case I need to deliver newspapers, two pairs of shorts (one waterproof), two pairs of jeans, one pair of corduroy pants, another flannel shirt, another long-sleeved t-shirt, two more regular t-shirts, a belt, my dress(ier) shoes, a towel that has been magically compacted into an impossibly small size, and a bag full of shampoo and deodorant.  It will also contain my dress clothes, but those are in one of those bags that is supposed to prevent wrinkles but never works.

 
4)Finally this is my backpack.  It is sad right now because it is empty.  When I actually get on the plane this will contain my books for the plane, my laptop, and my laptop accessories.  So, if you want to steal something valuable from me while simultaneously leaving me quite bored for a 14 hour flight and you're following this blog, STEAL THIS. 


5)Here is a picture of all the "light reading" I'll be taking to China.  You might think this is a bit much, but I read quickly, probably faster than most kindergarten graduates at least.  I'm also bringing copies of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching and The Analects of Confucius, because I am going to China and those are books that are important to China.


6)Here you can see a pile of Ursula K. LeGuin books that I am bringing for Hannah to read on the plane.  I loaned her A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan and she's been hooked!  Because Ursula K. LeGuin is like literary heroin.



Well, that's everything.  All the stuff I'm taking.  Well, not all of it, but most of it.  All of it that I care to mention, anyway.  Wish me luck in China!  I leave on Monday, but first, up to Spokane for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with my ex-hall mates/future-house mates! (Riley and I are gonna make brinner and it's gonna be awesome).

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Purpose Statement

I've started this blog for three reasons.  First, I am an aspiring author, and aspiring authors must have blogs; it's one of the rules of the internet, I'm told. Second, I've wanted to try blogging for a while and have started a few for kicks and giggles in the past, but have never really taken it seriously and never kept it up for long.  Second, I'll be in Beijing China on a study abroad trip for the next four months, and while the program I'm traveling with has its own blog at http://whitworthchinaprogram.blogspot.com/, I thought I'd like one of my own to keep in more direct contact with people back home.  Because I'll be posting through e-mail I'm not sure how I'll be able to respond to comments and things, but I'll try.  I think I'll make a post later about all the stuff I'm taking to China, but aside from that this will be the only post I make until I'm actually in Beijing.  Wish me luck, success, and good grades!