LingYing Temple

6 April 2008
Tonight I am exhausted, though it was quite a pleasant day. My body is still arguing with the time change and I only slept from 1am-5:30am local time. This morning, Waipo and I went to church. We took a bus downtown and she told everyone I was a doctor, I bet. I came down from my room early or so I thought at 8:20 and she quickly whisked me out the door. I didn’t have time to go back up and get money for the bus, and for this I feel inadequate as she paid my bus fare of 2 yuan (29 cents) both ways. Mass was amazing. Of course, I have no idea what the readings were or what the priest said in his very long homily, but the people sang boisterously and the church was full. The rejoice resounded so much more than at home. All I understood was Alleluia (we sang a lot off those), Amen, and Yasua (Jesus). The order of the mass helped and I just responded in English. Despite it all, I was rather moved by the whole experience.
Afterwards, Waipo reigned in those she thought spoke English. I spoke with Tony, a photojournalist who was very shy and worked so hard to help. He let me know there is an English mass on Saturdays and he offered to send a bus schedule by email so that I could get there. Maybe though, I will just take Waipo next week and pay her bus fare.
This whole process took 3 hours, getting there, mass , talk afterwards as well as a stop at a traditional medicine store for glass spheres with round wholes on one side that Waipo will use for “cupping” as I surmised from her demonstration of their purpose. I was to meet the girls at 11:30 and I was here at the villa at 11:30, but when they came in I was in Waipo’s house with Waigong, her daughter and great-granddaughter as they invited me in for lunch and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The food was great, it seemed to be the home version of many of the things we have eaten over the past few days at restaurants. Conversation was funny. The great-granddaughter can read Chinese characters and thought it amusing that I couldn’t pronounce the words. However, she served to help me get my meaning across as I think Waipo doesn’t read well and her daughter only is a little better. Despite the communication barrier, we shared photos of our families, mine on the computer and hers as hardcopies that Waigong had taken. The girls ended up having lunch out while I stayed in. I felt uncomfortable with this as it was not my place to invite them, but I didn’t want to leave them out. Fortunately they were cool about it.
We went to Lingyin Temple this afternoon and walked a ton. There’s so much to see, and we only saw a sample as we’re all exhausted. There were thousands of Buddhas both inside the temple and outside carved into the hills and caves. There were also many Chinese people at the temple, burning incense and bowing at the waist before many of the Buddhas with such rhythm and precision. Inside the buildings of the temple we were not allowed to take photos, so sadly there are few, except what we could take from the outside. There was a hall of many golden or bronze Buddhas of many shapes and descriptions. Another had the largest sitting Buddha in China, with giant warrior like statues standing around the edges. The Buddha of Medicine Temple also had a large thinner Buddha with other large statues in attendance. There were many other buildings of Buddhas that we did not enter. I did find a four leaf clover on the way out. The buildings had the stereotypical curved edges which I found appealing. Also, it seems that “temple” is a little different than “church” in that the temple encompasses a bit of land and many buildings, not just one building. It’s a larger space.
There were monks all over. We got a picture with one and another walked with us part of the way home. Sadly, my camera battery had died by this time, but he let us touch his cloak and showed us his pants under the cloak. He also gave us a prayer card with a Buddha on it and lots of Chinese characters. I was surprised to see the monks laughing and talking very relaxed with one another – my imagination of them was of great solemnity. Yesterday, we saw some of them at Walmart, too. I suppose they need stuff just like anyone else.
On the way to Lingyin, we stopped at “Cloudy Pine Sanctum” which seemed it would be a quiet place. Inside however, people were playing cards, eating and kids were playing – much noisier and active than I thought it would be. There were many buildings and one had many books in it as well as some paint brushes. This seemed to be a room of display rather than of use. There were many quiet spots and fun detailed decorations.
Once we came home, jetlag has caught up with me and I’m going to bed at 7:30. The girls are going out for dinner.