Yesterday was reasonably clear and overcast, so we headed next door to the temple. Here we are at the back gate of the temple, and if you look close you can see a corner of our building peeking at the upper right hand corner. I have grown accustomed to the proximity of the temple, the gonging, the smell of incense, etc... Not to mention the beauty of the mountain (Five Old Men Mountain by name) which we can easily gaze at out or windows. The lily pond in front of the temple was in full spring time glory.
Doesn't Emily look so grown up in this picture?
Nanputuo Temple
Roof detail...much of the temple has been restored and repainted while we have been here -- just magnificent.
Emily at Guan Yin's altar...the goddess of mercy. This image is a Bodhisattva with many many hands (for helping the suffering).
People ask me if we get too much unwanted attention when we are in public. At a tourist destination such as the temple, undeniably the answer is yes. Sometimes the requests are made so sweetly or enthusiastically that we can't say no -- then a scene like the one above ensues. When someone touches her or is too forward, she usually lets out a bone chilling scream that knocks them for a bit of a loop . So I guess she can handle the paparazzi herself for the most part.
Back on topic -- I finally found the oven in the temple where they burn the "hell money" people bring for their ancestors and deceased love ones to use in heaven ( I have also seem paper clothes, houses and cell phones, too).
We were happy to find our favorite monk to meet the family. He naturally ushered us into his office (its a cave, if you recall) and plied the kids with candy, Buddhist medallions and this time started giving us Buddhist scriptures in Chinese to read since I told him I am learning to read Chinese. While I am not ready to read them, I did finally look up the character painted on the rock behind the altar the monk tends -- is the character for Buddha, not surprisingly. He got very excited and showed us around a bit, trying to get us to understand different sayings painted on rocks, even calling a friend to translate (but she said -- "I can't say it in English")
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We headed up the mountain, passing some caves on the way -- many filled with all shapes and sizes of religious images brought by pilgrims.
At last -- the top of the mountain!
And over the top to the other side and into the 10,000 Rock Botanical Garden with some goofy children.
It began to rain, so we "escaped" to the desert buildings -- the most impressive collection in the garden, in my opinion.
These were both too unusual for Aunt Laura to pass up photographing.
Helen with the "corn on the cob" cactus she found.
Finally a tired group heads back to campus by bus.
Today, being the 5th day of the 5th lunar month is a holiday called Duan Wu Jie. In English we call it the Dragon Boat festival, although racing dragon boats is only one of the activities associated with this festival which celebrates the life and death of a faithful and devoted government official long long ago who drowned himself after realizing that corruption had destroyed the nation he helped to build. In addition to the dragon boats, its customary to eat zongzi -- glutinous rice mixed with dates or pork and wrapped in palm leaves...see photos below. The people wanted to make some rice offerings to the honest official, but had to wrap them to keep the fish from getting them! My friend's mother had made us some delicious zongzi.
Unfortunately, not much was happening in the way of festivities, because the dragon boat races had been canceled due to mourning the earthquake victims, according to some friends of ours.
Just a note on the photos -- all the good ones were taken by Laura with her stupendous camera. The best was when she captured on film something I have been trying to photograph all year -- a baby in split pants. In lieu of diapers many Chinese children wear these pants with the hole in the back until they are old enough not to need them. Amazing.
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