Today we did prep work for the show and our plant tours all morning, then headed out to see a Buddhist temple, and the old section of town which is now kind of a tourist trinket free-for-all.
The Temple was really, really interesting. It was actually a functioning place of worship, even with touristas (including me) snapping photos and the like. As long as they were making money, it didn't seem to bother them. I am beginning to understand that the vague sense we have as Christians that money is something dangerous, and not to be trusted is totally absent here. Remember, the "D.L." (Buddhist leader from a highly contested section of China that I don't dare mention when writing from here) is also a sharp and wealthy business man as well as a religious leader, and that's totally OK with them, not seen as a conflict of interest at all. Wow, sorry! I got off on another quasi-political rant and then mixed in religion. Bad form.
Exterior of the temple:
Me with lesser gods. These things were gigantic, gold plated, and very impressive. This temple was called "The temple of the Jade Buddha." I wasn't allowed to take a picture of the Jade Buddha, but suffice it to say it was very large and made out of jade. Very expensive.
This little Buddhist deity (even though Buddhists aren't really much for theism... I had to sort that one out on Wikipedia afterwards) reminded me of Daphne.
They had all kinds of antiques and religious items for sale at the temple, but one of the coolest things was not for sale - this mahogany wood carving took an artisan three years (about 300 years ago as I recall... not sure about that) to complete. It depicts the Buddha and a whole bunch of other characters, presumably deities of some kind or other.
After this we went to the old section of town and looked at trinkets. This was a cool looking section of town, with restored original Chinese buildings.
The obligatory street food shot - my cup of braised bean curd patties with soy and chile sauce on top... Delicious and only about $1.20! Allen was not impressed with my culinary discretion.
We had dinner on the top floor of our hotel. It had a glass ceiling (literal, not figurative!), and a cool building towered over us. Quite a flattering shot of me, I have to say.
Miss and Love you all!
Pete
2 comments:
You must really be missing Daphne if a little Buddhist statue reminds you of her!
-R
Great selection of pics, Pete. It's OK for the DL to make lots of money as long as he doesn't DESIRE to make lots of money. I think a Zen Buddhism tenet is you must eliminate desire. But you can't desire to eliminate desire... Oy vay, I think I'll stay Jewish!
Franny
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