Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Guiyan Temple in Wuhan


One of the four main Buddhist monasteries in China, it has a jade stature of Sakaymuni, which to our mind from the story seemed to have been snagged from Cambodia. Who knows the real story? There were also over 500 Arhat statues, kind of disciples of Buddha that have also reached Nirvana. The Arhats had been created by a father and son team of sculptures over a 9 year period. I can't believe that i don't; have a photo of them. Many of the temples that we have gone into do not allow photos in the place where the final statue or worshiping place is. Rightly so since people are actually trying to be spiritual in spite of the many many tourists(mostly Chinese and a few gringos) milling about.
As we found in Guilin, Buddhists are fond of turtles and this monastery was no exception. The main pond (square shape vs circular shape is pool) was so full of them that August at first thought that they were rocks! Then on closer inspection.....

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