Leshan and Emeishan

Leshan and Emeishan

Day 1

This weekend we took a two day excursion to Leshan and Emeishan. "Shan" in Chinese means mountain, so in English they would be Mt. Le and Mt. Emei, but you won't find them referred to as that anywhere. This entry is just the first day. I'm too lazy to post about the whole trip in one post. To give you some background, both mountains are sacred Chinese Buddhism pilgrimage sites.

The first, Leshan, is a giant Buddha that was carved out of the side of a cliff on a riverbank opposite the city of Leshan (yes, same name). The sculpture was conceived by monk named Haitong who was granted funding for the project by public subscription and revenues from salt production. When a local official threatened to blind Haitong unless he cut his budget, the monk supposedly gouged his own eyes out to prove his sincerity. The sculpture was completed after Haitong's death. The regional governor donated his own salary to complete the legs and feet.

Emeishan is one of the four most sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism. There are many monasteries nestled throughout the 10,167 foot tall mountain. Because of the earthquake, we were not allowed to hike to the top of the mountain . . . which means I'll have to visit Emeishan again!

An hour and a half into the two and a half hour bus trip from Chengdu to Leshan, we took a rest at a fancy teahouse. The teahouse is somewhat of a tourist trap/hotel. The hillside next to the teahouse is ornately planted and very pretty. An excellent spot for Amanda and I to have a photo taken.

If you look at the picture of Amanda and I closely, you'll note that in the upper left corner are rows of shrubs. Those shrubs are tea plants. Here's a better view. These plants allow farmers to make use of their steepest hillsides while preventing erosion.

And if you looked really closely, you'll have noted that Amanda and I are holding ice cream cones. This is a close-up of my ice cream cone. The flavors are green tea and rose tea. The rose tea soft-serve was okay, but the green tea soft-serve was AMAZING.

The city of Leshan seemed like a quainter version of Chengdu. Many of the street level storefronts were the same. What was nice is that the majority of the buildings are shorter and the pollution isn't quite as bad.

This is the ancient wharf of the city of Leshan. From here we got on a river boat to see Leshan.

This is the statue. Notice the people at the Buddha's feet. Leshan was carved at a point where three rivers converge. Before the construction of the Buddha, the rivers would often have massive, damaging floods. Ever since the construction of the Buddha, the waters have never risen above the bottom of his feet. I blame the fuzziness of the picture on the omnipresent Sichuan Haze (that's what I call it). Sichuan is a basin with a lot of humidity. This humid haze sits over the whole basin, making it hard to see a blue sky even on a sunny day. It can be just as bright as Indiana, but you can't see the sky for the haze.

We had lunch at a very nice restaurant next to the wharf. This dish is called Squirrel Fish because the fish is carved like a pine cone. I don't quite see the direct correlation between pine cones and squirrels, maybe Chinese squirrels have a different diet than American ones. Anyway, it was delicious, just be careful about bones.






The first temple we visited at Emeishan was the Baoguo monastery. It covers the largest area of all the monasteries on Emeishan. It is also the easiest to get to, you can drive to it.

I misunderstood the photography directions. I thought we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the monastery. Actually we could, just not inside the halls with the Buddha statues. My favorite moment was watching a monk walking very slowly while thumbing his prayer beads. It reminded me a lot of my recent theatre movement class.
Some women taking a rest outside.




Over the river and through the woods to Fuhu nunnery we go!

Here is the gate to the Fuhu nunnery. By this time I had learned that the photography prohibitions were a lot more relaxed than I had thought. Again, Sichuan haze. Not as bad as Leshan, but there was a storm a-brewin' and the clouds were heavy.

Now for some Chinese Buddhist monastery staples. When you enter a courtyard, first there is an urn like this one.

Then a platform like this one for burning incense. After the incense is an enclosed hall with a Buddha statues and statues of other holy lamas. As you continue through a monastery, there are several of these courtyards followed by the enclosed hall, usually growing in grandeur the farther into the monastery you go.

Some views of the nunnery.

Nowhere else on the mountain did I see such thick spider webs.

Nap-time

This gate was at the bottom of the mountain. The big characters above the gate are written not only in traditional characters, but with classical grammar. It is pronounced "Rán zĭ fà dào." My own poor translation of that means, "Liken yourself to the laws of the Way." In the West, we often see "the Way" written as "the Dao" or "the Tao." Emeishan is also sacred to Daoism, not just Buddhism. If one of my Classical Chinese Literature classmates is reading this, perhaps you could post your own translation of the gate inscription.

I don't have any pictures of it, but our hotel had its own hotsprings. They weren't native rock pools, the spring water was piped into ceramic tile pools. It felt wonderful. Remember that storm front I mentioned? I was sitting in a steaming hotspring with cool rain hitting my face. Yes, you are allowed to be jealous.

There's much more to my Emeishan adventure, including elephants, monkeys and waterfalls, but that's for another post.