A Trip To Shanjue Temple (October 11)

It was such a nice day, Tom volunteered to take us to a small temple that was fairly off the beaten path. Mostly only local visitors went to this temple. It is located about halfway up from the bus stop to Fu Hu Temple to the right along a steep path that is marked but not so obvious. It was cool and damp, but a wonderful day for a walk up Emei Mountain.


We began our trip with breakfast at this guy's place. He makes a "sloppy joe"-like sandwich with shredded pork. He also makes his own bread for the pork. Here he is rolling the bread out before baking it on his little open-fire oven.


The bread has the taste and feel of an English muffin. We truly love his bread.


The pork is cooked in a huge cauldron and pieces are taken out as needed and shredded and chopped and mashed into the sloppy joe mixture. It can be as spicy as you want. We love his sandwiches if that is what they are called. A great breakfast for what lay ahead of us this morning.


We walked to the road and caught the bus going to Fu Hu Temple. We would get off the bus about a quarter of a mile before the end of its route.


The start of our journey up Emei is marked by direction signs pointing the way to ShanJue Temple. Not too steep but no easy either.


The start of the climb was the most difficult but was really only slightly elevated. Here Sunee makes her way up the well-rocked path of stones and slabs.


About half way up the mountain, there is a big restaurant on the left. We see a lot of people drinking tea and playing mahjong. Very nice and relaxing atmosphere.


The path continues up the mountain after the restaurant.


A few hundred yards further, Tom finds a small stream coming down the mountain. Emei Mountain is the wettest mountain I have ever seen. This is but one of thousands of constantly flowing streams down from the mountain.


Another small tea house for the tired trekkers. This one is set amongst a grove of beautifully green bamboo. This place was a lot more primitive than the other restaurant a ways back down the path.


As we took a break from our climb in the area of the second restaurant, I caught a glimpse of Fu Hu Temple across the way. Set amidst the beauty of Emei Mountain, it is indeed an inspiring temple.


Welcome to Shan Jue Temple. This is at the top of the path and well worth the trek up. It is actually older than most of the other temples or so I read somewhere on the internet.


One unusual aspect of Shan Jue Temple is the location of the guarding dogs. They are placed well away from the temple and at the very end of the path up the mountain. Most guard dogs at temples across China sit in front and guard the actual entrance to the first buildings. These dogs seem to be welcoming more than guarding.


I walked around the left side of the temple and here one sees how nicely the temple is nestled into the surrounding forest.


The incense burner in front of the temple had a large elephant on its top. I thought this was pretty unusual so I took a picture.


After the hour or so trek up the mountain, Sunee took a well-deserved break.


All the Buddha images in the temple were covered with what appeared to be Tibetan Buddhist scarves. I suppose the weather was getting cold so the scarves will come in handy.



Here Tom muses over the meaning of each of the images in the first entrance area.


A square incense burner in front of the second building. We looked for a small square incense burner for about three months before we found one. Sunee wanted to take it back to Thailand with her, which she did.


Close up of a huge black incense burner in the first building. It looked to be very old.


A bronze Buddha image in one of the buildings. I do not remember exactly where it was located.


Ditto this Buddha image. There were several images throughout the structure.


This is the courtyard between the first and second buildings of the temple. It is really a pleasant yard and it felt very ancient in its surroundings.


I think this image is supposed to be Tom's birthday image but I am not sure. He took us over to see one of the Arhats and this one was one of them. I do remember him mentioning the concept of a birthday guy.


This is a small room off the right of the main entrance to the second building. It was very colorful so I took this picture.


Modern meets ancient. Here one of the monks (actually a nun) using her cell phone. Most of the temples on Emei Mountain are actually for female monks.


One of many unusual but small flowers that were blooming in the courtyards of Shan Jue Temple.


Sunee constantly looks for the older citizenry to visit and get to know. Here she visits with an eighty three year old Chinese from Emei. This lady walks the distance from Emei City to this temple once a week. That is quite a distance for anyone let alone an octogenarian.


I am always looking for shots like this. Something about the natural framing of a door or opening that intensifies the object of my focus.


This, IMHO, is the best picture I took at Shan Jue Temple. These ladies volunteer to assist at the temple. The Octogenarian is sitting visiting with the lady who is making shoes for the monks (monkettes). A great picture with one of the Buddha images in the background.


On the way down, we stopped at the big restaurant to get something to eat. They had good noodles and some interesting flowers.


This is a close-up of the above flower. I think they are probably flowers from a mellon vine of some kind. Beautifully oranged out, don't you think? Notice the ants climbing around inside it.



These two flowers I found on the way back down. By the time we finished the trip down, the light was pretty well gone.


This is the direction sign showing the way to ShanJue Temple. It was after 6 PM when we finally stopped the bus which took us back to Southwest Jiaotong University.