Ghosts and Sunsets

To continue the recent flurry of blog posts, I shall recount the tale of last Thursday. After deciding that I had done enough physical activity in the past four days to last me until the weekend, and that it was time to catch up on some Chinese vocabulary, fate decided that it was not the appropriate day for either. Instead, Yaling suggested that we go 'into the woods.' Realizing that studying can wait (let's be honest, always) and intrigued by what 'going into the woods' involved, I readily agreed. A scooter ride away was Tianshang mountain, which was our apparent destination. We didn't really know where the road leading up to this mountain was located, so we spent a good while zooming around some backroads, which was really quite enjoyable...a stone's throw from the city yet a separate universe of its own.

We eventually found the elusive road, which granted us a nice parking spot. From there, it was a short walk to a rather large temple in the mountains. At the entrance, due to Yaling's apparently too-short-for-temple shorts, we were sprayed down with uh...holy water, or something, and Yaling had to wear a makeshift skirt. Entering the temple area, I marveled at how many people had journeyed here on this day. Then, I remembered that it was during the Ghost Festival, which explained all the fires in Banqiao I had seen. We were just passing through this temple on the way up the mountain, but I stopped to take a picture of the valley from the balcony. Upon turning around, I realized that Yaling had not seen me stop and was nowhere to be seen. Simultaneously, the gong sounded and everyone moved to the benches for the next 'service' (period of group worship...I won't guess at the proper term). As I began searching for the Yaling, a monk, misunderstanding my confusion and despair, guided to me a spot in the middle of one of the benches. Long story short, I found myself in the middle of a Buddhist worship session, 'participating' to some extent. This involved a lot of chanting (reading from the book in front of us...I just flipped the pages at the appropriate times and hummed along) followed by a bout of repetitions of more melodic singing and prostrations. We repeated this cycle about 3 or 4 times. I can't say how long the whole thing was. However, it was quite an experience.



view from the temple








Upon being released, Yaling snatched me back up (having easily spotted the white guy with an indigo shirt), confused as to why I had jumped into the fray. We passed through the temple (walking out the back gate of this temple seriously felt like I was in some asian RPG or something) and started our way up the rest of the mountain. This walk can be best described (well, not sufficiently described at all) by its sounds. I heard so many odd sounds (animals, I assume) during the climb that I can't begin to describe...purely because they were things I had never heard before. After some more beautiful scenery and walking uphill for a moderate length of time (so much for no physical activity), we reached our destination: 承天寺 （Chengtiansi）, which was another temple. This one was much higher up, smaller in size, and of lower key. In contrast to the last one, there was absolutely no one around...even the owner, who we assume was the guy clearing the hillside for some tea planting, had left a note saying, "Gone for a while, help yourself." The 'help yourself' bit referred to the small shop that was located in the temple, which had some drinks, snacks, etc. We gladly helped ourselves (which we, of course, left payment for), especially to the drinks. After finding a chair, a fan, and boiling some water, I basked in one of those perfect moments. A subtle orgy of the senses, if you will. The fan was blowing on my back, the warm glow of the setting sun on my front, the aroma of incense burning in the temple, the taste of noodles sliding down my throat, the image of looking out from the temple at the sun sinking past the treeline into the valley, the utter quietness. Just one of those moments when you feel your very being is slowly melting away into the Ether. I know I will have that mental image for a long time to come.




Inside of 承天寺













Looking out...
overexposed




Alas, we eventually departed, a lazy race to get down the mountain before the sun disappeared. We won that race in the nick of time, arriving at the lower temple right before it closed. We had to sneak Yaling through, as she had no makeshift skirt on this time. After playing the dodge-the-monks for 5 minutes, we safely made it back to the now-deserted winding streets and lonely dogs.