It's the end of another semester and that means another trip to several Chinese cities. This semester I decided to go on the route that focused on Chinese Buddhism. Chinese Buddhism came to China during the Han Dynasty. There are various legends but one of them is that the Chinese Emperor, Emperor Ming of Han, had a dream of a god that was had the brilliance of the sun and flew around the palace. The Emperor asked his adviser who the god was and his adviser informed him that there was somebody in India who attained the Dao and was called Buddha. The Emperor sent forth envoys to India to find this Buddha. The envoys returned with the teachings of Buddha and thus Buddhism had entered China. This trip explored several cities were Buddhism is very prevalent. The first city that we went to was Luoyang (洛阳)
洛阳 is one of the Four Ancient Great Capitals of China. There other great capitals were Nanjing, Xi'an, and Beijing. 洛阳 is located in Henan Province and is in between the Luo River and the Yellow River. 洛阳 has great fengshui and made for a great capital of China. 洛阳 was the capital of China during the Eastern Han Dynasty. While visiting 洛阳 we learned about the introduction of Buddhism as well as visited several important places.
The first day in 洛阳 we went to the Shaolin Temple (少林寺) and the White Horse Temple (白马寺). The Shaolin Temple is believed to have been founded in the 5th century CE and is still the main temple for the Shaolin Buddhism today. The name refers to the forests of the Shaoshi mountain which is part of the Song mountain. The Shaolin Temple is huge and we weren't able to see it all. However, we were able to see a martial arts show performed by the young monks that were learning at the school. The performance was really good and cool to watch. Makes me think that being a monk wouldn't be too bad since all they do is learn martial arts, study, and of course pray. The second temple that we went to was the White Horse Temple. According to Chinese legend, this was the first Buddhist temple to be built in China. It was built by Emperor Ming. It was built in 68 AD. The temple is cool but it is similar to other temples that I've visited in China. However, what makes this temple stand out in particular to me is that there are several temples inside that were sponsored by other countries and resemble the Buddhist temples in those countries. Some of the international temples were from Thailand, Malaysia, and India. It was interesting seeing how different the temples were from each other. I wish that I could have taken my time through them but we were rushed.
The second day in 洛阳 we visited the Longmen Grottoes (龙门石窟). I really enjoyed the Longmen Grottoes. The Longmen Grottoes is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and is home to tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples. I definitely enjoyed the Longmen Grottoes the most out of all the places we visited in 洛阳。I think it was really cool to see such giant statues preserved. Walking along the river was also beautiful. I'm finding that each place I visit is more beautiful than the last. I can't wait to show my family one day.
We are heading to 西安 next but I've already talked about that place so see you next time in Xining (西宁)
再见！
郎马乐
