Heaven on top of the mountain

Local Buddhist followers pay

regular visits to this age-old temple. (Photo:China

Daily)
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Gallery

By Lin Shujuan

BEIJING, Feb.2 -- It's only 18 months since Yan

Liancheng broke the news to her family. She had converted to Buddhism and would

be leaving home to live on top of a mountain 50 km away.

Yan's family in Chengdu was shocked and it had

nothing to do with her choice of religion. When she made her life-changing

announcement, Yan was already 80 years old.

She chuckles as she recalls telling her family about

her decision to live in the Buddhist temple known as Lingkai. "My children

panicked," she says. "They thought they must have done something offensive to me

and I was running away from home.

"Actually, it was completely the opposite. After so

many years, I've finally found the key to true happiness - a balanced mind and

the readiness to forgive. If you have these, you can be happy every day and have

a long life.

"I've learnt this through my life experience,

especially through my visits to this temple. During ups and downs I found peace

here. I couldn't have found a better place to spend the rest of my life."

The incense container in the temple is

rusty but never empty. (Photo: China Daily)
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There is a Chinese saying: "What matters most for a

mountain is not its height, but its heavenly inspiration". Yan says Lingkai's

mountain is such an example.

From a distance, says Yan, it looks like a lotus

surrounded by other mountains, like nine frolicking dragons. Hence its name is

Fulian (Buddhist Lotus) Mountain or Jiulong (Nine Dragon) Mountain.

Now Yan's main duty is to guard the Buddha of Fortune

and keep the temple hall clean. Monotonous as it sounds, Yan says she never

feels bored or lonely since there are always visitors, with whom she can chat

and share her experiences. These conversations have been quite meaningful - Yan

has even become godmother to some frequent visitors.

During a recent festival, when hundreds of followers

came to receive the temple's feast, the 82-year-old was found proudly reciting a

long sutra among her goddaughters.

Someone had praised her for her good memory and good

health. Yan laughed heartily. "This mountain is a godly place," she said.

For believers like Yan, the Lingkai Temple is both

sacred and familiar.

The temple halls, most of which are over 100 years

old, are maintained and functional but far from magnificent in appearance. The

columns are peeling and the altars are made of plain wood.

The numerous dragon symbols, a main feature of the

temple and a reminder of the heavenly spirit they believe inhabits the mountain,

are well maintained and vividly colorful. The incense container in front of each

of the temple halls may be rusty but it is never empty.

Each day dozens of devotees visit the temple,

accessible only by a one-lane car drive from the foot of the mountain and only

recently built by the temple. There are no buses to the top of the mountain and

many people hire a taxi. Most, however, walk the 5 km up the mountain and donate

the money they have saved to the temple.

Once inside, regular visitors know each of the 80

resident monks and can greet them warmly by name. They know who to go to when

they need advice on greetings for a wedding or epigraphs for the deceased. In

the event of a new arrival, each monk is a ready guide, even a new convert like

Guangming from Chengdu.

Guangming is in her 30s. Following her around the

temple, she proudly narrates its history and legends, as if it belonged to her

family.

The two century-old Bodhi trees in front of the

temple always bear beans in the shape of Buddha's head. There is also a

sweet-scented osmanthus tree, which withered during the "cultural revolution"

(1966-76), when the temple was almost abandoned, yet revived in 1985 when the

temple reopened to the public. Locals believe one will have a long life if he

samples the temple's speciality, wine made with flowers from the tree.

"There wouldn't have been such a temple had there not

been the constant support of pious followers," says Shi Congxiu, the oldest monk

in the temple. "Over its more than 1,000 years of history, the temple has been

destroyed many times, but has always been rebuilt with donations from its

followers."

Legend has it that during the Song Dynasty

(960-1279), a monk at Ciyun Temple on the opposite mountain found its heavenly

spirit while meditating. He moved there and a few years later, with help and

donations from a few followers, built the temple and named it Nianhua

(flower-picking) Temple.

"People usually think the name of the temple refers

to the legend of Shakyamuni holding up the flower to a smiling Mahakashyapa,

considered the First Ancestor of Zen in India," Shi says.

"In fact, the hua (flower) in the name refers to

mianhua (cotton). People usually refer to donations to temples as dengyouqian

(literally, money for lantern and oil). Since cotton is used as wicks for oil

lanterns, the monk has included 'cotton' in the name of the temple to pay

tribute to the temple's followers."

From its beginning, the temple has been

self-sufficient. All the monks, even the abbot Shi Miaoguo, have to work in the

fields to produce food.

On festive occasions like the Laba Festival, which

falls on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, when Sakyamuni realized his

dream of full enlightenment, the temple throws a vegetarian feast for its

followers with food produced from its own fields.

Donations go to the maintenance of the temple. In

return, the monks also give Buddhist teachings, counseling and advice on any

subject requested. As an expert in acupuncture and herbal medicine, the abbot is

always happy to offer medical service to whoever asks for it.

(Source: China Daily)