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From Magic City Morning Star R.P. BenDedek
Last weekend, Albert (English teacher from the Philippines), Jerry (Formerly from Shandong, now working in SuZhou) and I, went off to Mudu to climb a mountain.
We went to Lingyan Shan in Mudu (one of the towns belonging to SuZhou). We climbed a hill / mountain to visit a pagoda there. I had already been there last June with Chiara Braccagni (Italian teacher from Udine). Whilst on this occasion, we only climbed the mountain, Chiara and I had first visited the Hua Yuan garden, located next door.
The Hua Yuan cost something (can't remember) to get in and was a nice peaceful tourist attraction. At least one of the buildings there was the former residence of someone special - but who? - again can't remember. We followed a hillside walkway from that garden and found ourselves near the entrance to Lingyan Shan, and having no idea where we were, we decided to take a look around.
We had picked the hottest day of the year to do this trip, and it took it's toll. By the time we reached the summit, I was too exhausted to enter the temple, choosing instead to recuperate outside. On this occasion however, the weather was cooler, and I was ready to explore a little.
But at that time, there was nothing special about the season. Little did I know that every man and his dog wanted to go climb mountains last weekend. We had taken the number 406 bus to the end of its route, and then waited for a number 4 'tourist' bus. But every bus including the number 4 tourist bus was full. We spent over an hour waiting to be able to fit into a passing bus. Needless to say, we arrived in Mudu later than planned.
After a turn or two it took us past an Indian 'Buddha' shrine. There were people praying and bowing and lighting incense, and of course many more just taking photos. Later on our way back, on the path above the shrine we saw a religious pilgrim. Bowing, kneeling, praying, standing and taking one more step before repeating the process, he had obviously come a long way already, and had a long way yet to go.
From the shrine we had quite a steep climb up a set of stairs that led up to the temple. These stairs were located on something like a narrow land-bridge between two peaks. The views were really good, but as we were to discover, they were to get even better.
When we arrived at the temple, we did not immediately go in. On the previous occasion with Chiara, we had followed lots of people who seemed to be going somewhere. But after leaving the pathway and climbing some rocks, the heat became too much and we abandoned the chase. We returned to the temple, where I sat on the fence and tried to cool down.
What we discovered took our breath away. After following the pathway around the mountain we were faced with a choice of either a path downward or a trail upward. We chose the upward trail, and hoped to find something. After climbing over boulders and headed in the direction of some boys sitting atop one, we arrived at a spectacular viewpoint. We had an almost 360 degree view of Mudu. While we were marveling at the view before us, I heard a few voices off in the distance behind us. When I turned to look, I was surprised to find that there was a ridge there, completely jam packed with people taking in the 'better view'.
Well, after the obligatory conversations and photo shoots with the locals, and after taking our own round of photos of each other standing on the highest peak, we set off back toward the temple. In reaching the peak we had passed a multi-storey large building with windows and bars through which we could see lots and lots of alabaster type boxes. Not being gifted with much natural intelligence, I thought it was some type of 'treasury' of antiques. Jerry told us that it was the place that dead people live. There was at least one other such building on the mountain. Last time I was there, Chiara and I had assumed that because there were a number of nuns around the place, that it was a nunnery. But Jerry said it too was where the cremated remains of individuals are stored.
It was not quite what I had expected - perhaps because Chiara never did show me the photos that she took inside. One enters through an actual temple with big ugly statues of Indian gods. Naturally there is also the obligatory 'golden Buddhas'. One then enters a courtyard surrounded by buildings. Directly opposite is another temple, but the buildings to the left and right are various activity rooms. This is a 'real' monastery in which monks study, work, pray and live.
The complex consists of several levels running up the mountainside, and has gardens, (flowers and vegetables), wells, rockeries, and meditative areas.
When I was at Emeishan, I met Mark Halperin, (UC Davis) an expert on Buddhism, who explained to me the difference between Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism. He explained that Chinese Buddhism is less concerned with austerity than the Tibetan form. He explained that traditionally the Chinese monastery is actually a community center for the local village or town. I therefore imagine that times past were not much different to today, with hordes of people and kids congregating around the temple areas.
I don't know if the monks in these places 'sense' that I personally don't like Buddhist monks very much (I have had some nasty experiences with them at times), but they never look at me with anything like 'courtesy' let alone friendliness. One smiles at them, and they just stare. My own personal take on monks is that they are the 'superior people of the superior race', and as such, represent the worst element in Chinese society. (Oh I can just hear the screams at reading that!)
I met as many people who stared and pointed at me as wanted to talk to me. Of course they paid no attention to Albert, who they figured to be Chinese. It's quite funny really how some people will look at the foreigner and then stare at the 'Chinese' as though demanding to know 'What are you doing with THAT'. Despite all the nice pictures that one takes of such places as this, the worst elements can never really be captured on film. The place needed a good clean up and definitely some repairs. Then again, given all the ups-and-downs of Chinese history, and the bias against 'clergy' living off the general community, I guess it must not be such an easy life for these guys.
If you ever get out this way to SuZhou, then Mudu is a very easily accessed spot to visit. The number 4 tourist bus (which took us back to town) ran along Ren Min Road past the Guan Qian Walking Street. This is the central area for tourism in SuZhou, so it shouldn't be hard to find a bus stop and take a ride out to Mudu. There are quite a number of places at Mudu, and they are currently revamping the OLD town of Mudu, and it is going to look really nice. After we returned to earth from climbing the mountain, we got off the beaten track and went into a back lane to have a nice lunch in a common restaurant, the owners of which fell over backward at seeing a foreigner so far from the tourist trail. Well, I hope you enjoyed this story and these pictures. Have a nice day!
R.P.Bendedek Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
Photographic Stories From China "The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls. © Copyright 2002-2007 by Magic City Morning Star |
