Backyard of Buddha's House----SR Temple(7)

We toured around the temple and discovered this unworldly peaceful backyard. There's nobody around, the scene just impressed us on its rich color. The one-storey wooden house(behind the garden) homes dozens of monks who lead a tranquil life inside this 1600-year-old temple.

"CHAN"-----SR Temple(6)

This is the Chinese Character of "Chan", a sect of Buddhism cognate to Zen in Japanese Language. Photo taken in SR Temple.

Lotus---SR Temple(5)

Stepping into Soul's Retreat Temple, we saw lots of Lotus-shaped stuff, that's because Lotus is considered to be the symbol of Guanyin(the buddha as you can see in the last post). This is a facility for drinking water(What do you call this in English? You native speakers must know, I'm really curious about its name.)

Luck Rilievo----------SR Temple(4)

This verdict rilievo inside the temple is much like those good-luck fountains in Rome, people tossing coins onto it, the only difference is it's really difficult to keep your coins on this verdict wall, I tossed 10 Yuan, but.... should have change them into 100 cents and then toss them together, there must be one got in.

(In the second photo) you believe these two coins were tossed into it? I don't..

Cross Our Fingers------SR Temple(3)

I just heard the shocking news of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Sichuan, nearly 900 students were buried as two primary school buildings collapsed. I'll cross my fingers for them..

This photo was taken within the temple, I almost got caught when I took the photo because normally it's not allowed to take photos inside the temple. This statue of Guanyin(aka Avalokitesvara) stands about 15 meters high, but the wall in the back is much more magnificent, rises over 30 meters high with 108 arhats sculptured on it.

May Guanyin and Arhats bless those in Sichuan.

A Twist In History-----SR Temple(2)

First and fore most: Happy Mother's Day!

This is the front door of Soul's Retreat Temple(SR Temple,aka Lingyin Temple),but it was closed when we got there, you might wonder why, well, will you be surprised if I tell you this door, this magnificent front door, has been closed for years and all the tourists are only allowed to enter the temple through the side-gate, unless you are the emperor or the head of states. I heard the last time that it fully opened was for Chairman Mao's arrival, and even the highly-admired Premier Chou(aka Zhou Enlai) was greeted by a semi-opened gate. Aha..it's really picky,right?

But this gate was not closed until the secret visit of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, here's a really interesting story, I don't know if it's true but that's what we were told by the tourist guide.
It took me almost an hour to translate this story, still, it's pretty sketchy and poorly organized. But I'd like to take it as a gift for my mom and all the moms who see this story. May Buddha bless you~

During Emperor Qianlong's secret inspection tour(trip intended to inspect the livelihood of his people without informing any people of his arrival) in the southern China, Emperor Qianlong visited the SR temple at midnight, as you can imagine, all the monks had slept except a gatekeeper, and the front gate was closed with only a side-gate open for midnight lodgers.

Without knowing whom he's talking to, the gatekeeper refused to open the front gate for Qianlong and told the emperor the door would not open even if the epmeror was here.

Being the emperor of this country, Emperor Qianlong should, by no means, walk the side-door.
Without any alternatives, however, Emperor Qianlong, took the side path and the next day he made up a decent excuse to save his face, asking the leader of the temple to shut down the front door(aka the east gate) lest the divinity atmosphere of this temple(located in the eastern China) leak from this east gate.

There are two other occasions for the open of the front gate, one is the birthday of Avalokitesvara(a buddha), the other is the shuffling of the temple leader.

And it is considered to be a great great luck if you happen to be there the day it opens.^^

"On The Way To Heaven"--SR Temple(1)

We have to leave our cars here and take the scary cable car( Do I have to? Look at the mountains behind!)

Or,you may depend on your feet. (Thank goodness...)

On my way to heaven...

These four characters, I'm not so sure about the translation, but basically mean "one foot below heaven", indicating that you are very close to heaven when you get there. (This photo was taken at last summer, it's actually a rainy day today, but it seeems the rain stopped when I left the temple.)

I thought two posts should be enough to cover all the things about this old temple, but I was wrong. With a history of 1600-odd years, Soul's Retreat Temple is definitely not something you can get in a few words.

I took lots of photos this afternoon but I'm not gonna upload them all. Still, you should take a look at this amazing temple, and I'll spend the whole week introducing the temple, so if interested, you may come again in a few days, I believe there'll be a relatively complete introduction by then.