Travels in China 2008
Temple & Opera
On the return trip from our visit to the children, families, and schools of Feng Shen District, we have the remarkable opportunity to visit the Yun Ju Temple, the library for the other Buddhist Temples in China. The library is rarely open to the public, but we walk quietly around the grounds, in and out of cool bamboo groves, where 300 monks still reside in harmony with the mountains and river that surround the sanctuary. Hundreds of years ago, a wise monk had a vision that the sacred texts needed to be protected for future generations. Over the centuries, all the ancient, sacred Buddhist texts have been hand carved in marble and stone and stored in caves and passageways deep beneath the Temple, each huge stone slab (one page of text) wrapped in protective covering and stacked carefully on top of the other. And indeed, when the Temple was almost totally destroyed by the Japanese in the 1940s, the stone texts buried below ground survived the onslaught and ensured the continuity of the Buddhist sutras.
Back in the throbbing metropolis of Beijing for the evening, we are treated to a Westernized version of "The White Snake," one of the most popular Beijing operas from the Song dynasty. After a delicious dinner of "Katka's favorite duck," which everyone has been looking forward to tasting, we walk to the ornate and well-preserved opera house with Dr. Lu Sr., former Dean of the Traditional Academy of Chinese Opera and one of the foremost directors of Beijing opera in the country.
We are all particularly interested in learning about Chinese opera since Golden Courage is partnering with the University of Michigan Musical Society in a multi-year grant from the Kellogg Foundation to demonstrate the role of arts and cultural exchange in deepening understanding and relationships between the U.S. and China. What better teacher and guide through the nuances of Chinese opera than Dr. Lu Sr., who traveled to Ann Arbor in February to initiate the partnership with Ken Fischer and his excellent staff at the University Musical Society. Tomorrow we all will be visiting the Traditional School of Beijing Opera to continue building relationships with musicians and educators and to understand more deeply the rigorous training process for opera singers and other performance artists.
We gather at Dr. Yun Lu's apartment the next morning to hear the story of Shao Lin and her 13-year-old daughter, who have been assisted by the Golden Courage Emergency Services Program. Shao Lin's younger twin sisters were forced by desperate poverty to find work in Beijing in the very dangerous railroad yards. In 1995, tons of heavy metal collapsed in the area where the sisters were working, paralyzing one sister from the waist down and causing severe damage to the other sister. In seeking medical care for the sisters, the family was forced to sell all their meager possessions and enter the "floating population" in Beijing, hoping to bring some relief to the suffering of the sisters.
At their lowest point of despair and hopelessness, the family met Dr. Lu's mother and world-recognized physician, Dr. Pang, through the Golden Courage Emergency Services Program and began to get the legal representation they needed to find a modicum of justice and legal compensation for the accident. Slowly, the sisters received the medical operations they needed to begin a more normal life. With GCI's assistance, the paralyzed sister has been trained in computer programming and now is proud of the contribution she can make to the family. Also with the help of Golden Courage, Shao Lin's daughter is able to attend school and excel at her studies, giving each family member a way to help create self-sufficiency and contribute back to the family and society.
We are so grateful to hear each day the many ways we can make a contribution to families and children and give them renewed possibilities for a healthy, safe, and better future.
Many blessings,
Lucinda Kurtz and the Golden Courage Family