Travels in China 2007
Wutai Mountain
Climbing up the mountains, passing innumerable trucks carrying the coal that powers China's rampant economy, stopping at the roadside fruit stand of a farming couple whose fields yield ripe, delicious melons, we make our way to Wutai Mountain, the most important of the four sacred mountains in China and one of the primary centers of Buddhist practice in the world. As a "holy land" and place of deep healing potential, it attracts pilgrims from all over China and the world to its 250 Buddhist temples of almost unimaginable beauty that represent every Buddhist sect.
Yun is most interested in sharing this experience with us since he visited the temples of Wutai Mountain many times as a youth and young man with his mentor, the Buddhist monk who protected him on the streets of Beijing and trained him in Buddhist healing techniques early in life. Yun and the Monk would ride horseback across China, staying in the monasteries and learning with the monks in each temple. In fact, a few of the monks at the various temples recognize Yun and speak fondly to him during our visit.
Early in the morning, we awake to start our climb up the 1,080 steps to the Dai Luoding Temple, the temple so renowned for its extraordinary healers that many people flock here during the six months that the mountain is open to visitors to just walk these steps and pray for healing. Individual healing monks are also available for special consultations, and each person contributes according to his or her means.
As I sit catching my breath on or about the 736th step, a kindly old gentleman walks toward me and hands me his walking stick. I feel a rush of appreciation at this act of generosity and kindness and am touched at this universal display of compassion and caring across barriers of race and nationality and language, so fitting for this sacred place. Once at the top, we visit the consecutive courtyards and interior spaces that house towering Buddhas of such overwhelming beauty and power that we just stand in awe, knowing we are in the presence of a spiritual energy that spans space and time. I know in this very temple emperors of various dynasties have come and worshiped, leaving their mark in some way, a calligraphy, a stone tablet still on display 1,300 years after the temple was erected on this site.
The Chinese people have a deep connection to their ancestral and national roots, linking them together across ethnic and religious differences through their ancient culture of over 7,000 years. This is quite a different mentality from the youthful and pioneering spirit of our 300-year-old American culture, and nowhere is this contrast more dramatic than here at Wutai Mountain.
Because of Yun's connections with the temple's monks, we are invited into the quiet guest room to greet the master of the temple, to take a picture with him, and to have lunch with the resident monks.
What a privilege to sit quietly in the cool dining room and listen to the rhythmic chanting of the monks as they give thanks for their daily food. We eat a simple meal of rice and vegetables, tofu, a steamed bun, and fruit before descending the mountain. Rather than walking down the 1,080 steps, most of us trust the backs of horses that have walked these dusty and uneven paths hundreds of times.
We have the opportunity to visit several more of the temples that are dotted across the landscape of Wutai Mountain. As one of the five Zen temples, the Xiatong Temple has a long history, and many eminent monks have carried forward its tradition for centuries. Built by the order of Emperor Taizu in the Ming Dynasty, it covers almost 400,000 squre feet (over 9 acres), has seven grand halls in a row on the axis line of the temple yard, and houses more than 400 monks. Magnificent cast bronze pagodas surround the main hall. Pictured here is a stunning image of the Buddha in cast bronze in the Main Courtyard of the temple.
I only wish I could send you more pictures of the many temples, gold, jade, brightly colored wood, or marble Buddhas surrounded by their protectors and honored with cascading flowers, fruits and teas, and share with you the sweet and pungent smell of wafting incense in every courtyard and temple. But our modern technology will only allow me to send two pictures with each message. So I hope these descriptions and pictures give you just a bit of the experience I am so happy to share with you.