The past three days have been devoted to two major Buddhism sites in Sechuan, including the giant Buddha--Dafu--close by the city of Leshan. Arriving in Leshan I met a more rural and rugged China than I had seen so far, with rickety local busses and no English but plenty of sign language used to interact with travellers. I planned on getting a ferry across from the city to a temple at the side of Dafu. However, due to my lack of Chinese and the busdriver`s lack of English I was promptly let off at the side of the bridge they felt I should be at. So, starting at the northern gate I made my way on small, neat walking roads through hordes of Chinese visitors travelling in groups (min. size seems to be the 57 people a bus takes, plus one tour guide with a silly flag and a matching hat). Passing a pagoda, a few options to look at random buddha and cave stuff and even more Chinese hordes, I found myself next to the gigantic ear of Dafu much quicker than expected. A friendly Chinese family on pilgrimage explained the easier way to explore the Dafu for me, and I promptly set off on the steep climb down to the lower path along the shore--a beautiful walk leading to a fisherman village and a temple. The Dafu was impressive enough--his ears are 7 m long, and his eyes are 10 m across, and he is by far the biggest buddha I ever saw. However, I often find it easier to appreciate the little things that differentiate China from other places I`ve been: The greatness the Chinese seem to treasure so highly--everything in China is big--will often only make me feel alienated. (Fittingly enough; the Chinese Police posters stress that aliens, i.e. non-Chinese citizens, should report where they are to them.) However, the walk was lovely, the fisherman village was scenic and the potted plant garden in front of the cave tombs was really beautiful. Arriving at the monastery I thought of skipping it; I`ve seen a bunch of temples in China already, but a local monk motioned me in and so I decided to follow.
In most buddhist temples, including this one, they ask you not to photograph the holy figures. In stark contrast, the little monk (I was a head taller than him) urged me to take photos of the different buddha figures, then literally pulled me into the main room of the temple and told me what figures to snap shots of. This was accompanied by Chinese explanations, of whom the figures were I suppose, but our only common word was "buddha"--so he kept showing me all the buddhas and showed mne that Bussha can be in your stomach. In fact, he insisted that buddha could be in my stomach, and proved this by rubbing it vigourusly. As the local, slightly forced tour of the temple grounds continued, the walk got more and more bizzarre--and in the end I have no idea of whether I was actually felt up by a monk, or simply had most of my sweaty body dried off with tissues! Walking back to the starting point I was sent off with some sort of greeting or blessing, while the weird monk wandered off in the gardens, still in his own little world. I got a bus back to town. It left when it was full of people, honked appropriately as one would expect in any rural, slightly undeveloped countryside, and after a few stops a lady walked on with a live chicken in a bag and another bag of vegetables that seemed to go well with...well, chicken. I just love it when people carry chickens on busses, I don`t know why, but the sight of her simply made my day as I was heading for the long-distance bus station to get to Emei`shan before it got dark.
The past three days have been devoted to two major Buddhism sites in Sechuan, including the giant Buddha--Dafu--close by the city of Leshan. Arriving in Leshan I met a more rural and rugged China than I had seen so far, with rickety local busses and no English but plenty of sign language used to interact with travellers. I planned on getting a ferry across from the city to a temple at the side of Dafu. However, due to my lack of Chinese and the busdriver`s lack of English I was promptly let off at the side of the bridge they felt I should be at. So, starting at the northern gate I made my way on small, neat walking roads through hordes of Chinese visitors travelling in groups (min. size seems to be the 57 people a bus takes, plus one tour guide with a silly flag and a matching hat). Passing a pagoda, a few options to look at random buddha and cave stuff and even more Chinese hordes, I found myself next to the gigantic ear of Dafu much quicker than expected. A friendly Chinese family on pilgrimage explained the easier way to explore the Dafu for me, and I promptly set off on the steep climb down to the lower path along the shore--a beautiful walk leading to a fisherman village and a temple. The Dafu was impressive enough--his ears are 7 m long, and his eyes are 10 m across, and he is by far the biggest buddha I ever saw. However, I often find it easier to appreciate the little things that differentiate China from other places I`ve been: The greatness the Chinese seem to treasure so highly--everything in China is big--will often only make me feel alienated. (Fittingly enough; the Chinese Police posters stress that aliens, i.e. non-Chinese citizens, should report where they are to them.) However, the walk was lovely, the fisherman village was scenic and the potted plant garden in front of the cave tombs was really beautiful. Arriving at the monastery I thought of skipping it; I`ve seen a bunch of temples in China already, but a local monk motioned me in and so I decided to follow. 
In most buddhist temples, including this one, they ask you not to photograph the holy figures. In stark contrast, the little monk (I was a head taller than him) urged me to take photos of the different buddha figures, then literally pulled me into the main room of the temple and told me what figures to snap shots of. This was accompanied by Chinese explanations, of whom the figures were I suppose, but our only common word was "buddha"--so he kept showing me all the buddhas and showed mne that Bussha can be in your stomach. In fact, he insisted that buddha could be in my stomach, and proved this by rubbing it vigourusly. As the local, slightly forced tour of the temple grounds continued, the walk got more and more bizzarre--and in the end I have no idea of whether I was actually felt up by a monk, or simply had most of my sweaty body dried off with tissues! Walking back to the starting point I was sent off with some sort of greeting or blessing, while the weird monk wandered off in the gardens, still in his own little world. I got a bus back to town. It left when it was full of people, honked appropriately as one would expect in any rural, slightly undeveloped countryside, and after a few stops a lady walked on with a live chicken in a bag and another bag of vegetables that seemed to go well with...well, chicken. I just love it when people carry chickens on busses, I don`t know why, but the sight of her simply made my day as I was heading for the long-distance bus station to get to Emei`shan before it got dark. 
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