An Academic Trip To Crouching Tiger Temple

We scheduled a visit to Fuhu Temple for a couple of my students who were to write a travel journal article about the temple. Ms. Winter and Ms. Lorry were supposed to show up at around 1430 Sunday afternoon but were able to make it a little after 1500 due to class commitments. We had called Yanmao to coordinate the trip so eveything was set.

We took a bus to Emei Mountain, getting off at the little village nearest Fuhu Temple. The temple is another fifteen minute walk up the mountain.

Ms. Lorry, Ms. Winter and Sunee all walk casually up the mountain to the temple. It was a great day to be out and about on the mountain.

Yanmao greets us and invites us in to the meeting room for tea and interviews. Here she introduces the concepts behind being a nun on Emei Mountain ant Fuhu Temple.

Sunee relaxes and listens intently to the lecture on being a nun.

Lorry also listens with interest.

Ms Winter as well.

Both Ms. Winter and Ms. Lorry asked questions and took detailed notes about what Yanmao was telling them.

Here Yanmao shows a book written about the nunneries on Emei Mountain. It is written in both Chinese and English. She was kind enough to loan us the book for a few weeks.

After more than an hour of interviews and getting to know Buddhism from a nun's prospective, Yanmao invited us to share a meal with her. She took us outside to observe the ceremony that occurred prior to sharing food.

After prayers the nuns walked and chanted around the base of their living quarters.

Chanting and walking is part of the Pure Land Buddhist sects rituals.

A closer view of the rituals.

Nuns' living quarters.

Ms. Lorry and Ms. Winter with Yanmao in respectful pose.

Ms. Winter asked a question about prayers and Yanmao immediately took us to the small prayer room to give instructions on the proper way to show respect and pray. This was an interesting demonstration and practical experience for us all.

After a vegetarian lunch and on the way out, Ms. Winter meets and greets a cat that is cared for by the nuns. As I was taking additional pictures of the cat, one of the nuns invited me back to see the cat's family.

Ms. Lorry holds one of the temple cat's kittens, a fluff of white cotton.

Mother cat is not happy.

Yanmao bids us a fond farewell as we go explore the Fuhu Temple.

In the book Yanmao had loaned us, I read about some rare trees in the courtyard of the temple. Here the students pose by what we thought was a rare tree only to find out later it was not so rare.

In this building is the 13th century pagoda which celebrates the meeting of thousands of Buddhist across China during that period.

Can't help taking this beautiful stand in front of the bronze pagoda.

Ms. Lorry and Ms. Winter pose in front of one of the oldest relics in the temple, the 13th Century bronze pagoda.

Sunee visits with some of the nuns in front of the Hall of 500 Arhats. They were very delightful.

One of the huge Buddha images inside the Hall of 500 Arhats.

Ms. Lorry poses with her "lucky" Arhat. She found one that she liked then added her age to its number and found the corresponding sum. This was supposed to represent her lucky arhat.

I pose in the doorway of the Hall of 500 Arhats. Not too often I get my picture taken for this blog so figured I better take advantage.

This is one of the real rare trees the book mentioned. Its pedigree goes back to the time of the dinosaurs and is often called dinosaur food.

A spider makes his web on dinosaur food. Can this be considered an art photo? You judge.

My final photo of Fuhu Temple from above the main courtyard. Absolutely beautiful!

Our visit to the temple was a resounding success. The two students had a great time and learned a lot. Now let's see how well they write their article for the class.

A Birthday Party For Cecil and John, The Gap Guy

For my birthday, we decided to take the Gap Guys (Ivan came over from his job in Leshan) and Tom to the Crouching Tiger Temple and visit our good friend, Yan Meow, who heads the school of Buddhist Thought at the temple. We walk down to the main highway and get a packed bus to the little village about a fifteen-minute walk from Crouching Tiger Temple. A pleasant day for a walk it turned out.


As we started our walk up the mountain to the temple, I caught a glimpse of a couple of monks waiting to board the just arrived bus. Thought it made for an interesting photo.

On each side of the road, the forest pressed against the asphalt. A few hundred meters from the village, we passed over a bridge. No water in the creek but a few people were playing mahjong on the tables set up by the dry creek bed. Interesting to see mahjong played from this angle.

We make our way to the temple and explain to the ticket seller who we are and she lets us all in without a problem. Looks like John might have gotten lost as we wait for Sunee to give Yan Meow a call to let her know we have arrived.


We arrive a little before 2 PM, give Yan Meow a call and then immediately enter the school area of the temple. No tourists are allowed in this area.

Yan Meow serves us lots of Emei Mountain Zhuyeqing Green Tea and was happy to answer our many questions we asked her via our interpreter - Sunee. We all learned a lot about Buddhism and Crouching Tiger Temple.

Yan Meow plays the gucheng for us. She has been practicing for over a year and was anxious for us to listen to her music. She is a wonderful musician.

All of us gave wonder to the Asian exotic sounds that she was producing. Sounds like a river running down through the forest of Emei Mountain was Tom's comment. Yeh, there is something very special about these ancient Chinese musical instruments.

Dave fiddles (or rather guchengs) around on the instrument. He, too, made some pleasant sounds without really trying.




Sunee gives the gucheng a try. Just plunking around on it produces some very pleasant sounds. Sunee wanted to learn how to play but realized it would take many years to master this ancient instrument.



Ivan gives the gucheng a shot. He plays a bass guitar and so he tended to keep on the bass side of the gucheng, if there is such a thing.

Yan Meow, our nun hostess, bids us farewell from the door of her school. Every time we have visited with her, we leave even more impressed with her radiance and sweetness.

Here come the THREE GAP GUYS! They seemed to be having a great time on MY birthday trip. Glad they came along.

Tom told me he had counted about 500 Buddhas on this old pagoda and got tired of counting. Figured there were around 1000 of them all told. I get a good shot of Tom focusing in on some of those Buddhas.

The table in front of the really old iron pagoda at the center of the side courtyard on the way to the 500 Arhats Temple. A lot of color. Those things on each side represent elephants.

Tom shows Dave around the temple. The incense makes a great veil of smoke for them to look through and make this a really interesting picture.

We left Crouching Tiger Temple and got to downtown Emei City at around 4:20 PM. Just enough time to get a cake. Here the cake decorator is working on our cake for the Birthday Party. We were to meet Bogdan at the two ladies statue at around 5 PM. Our timing was superb!

While waiting for the birthday cake time, Sunee visited with Bogdan about our trip to Crouching Tiger Temple.

Of course, we got the cherries as it was John and my birthday cake.

Happy Birthday to us! This unique little candle holder played "Happy Birthday" over and over. A cute little gadget that worked well.

The birthday meal was fantastic with duck, specially prepared mashed potatoes, kungpao chicken and a lot more!

Of course, the birthday cake looked as good on the table as it did at the bakery. It turned out to be mostly cream with a little bit of sponge cake. It was no overly sweet but very delicious (ask Tom about that).

The Birthday Boys official picture prior to the destruction of the cake.

Here Sunee uses a serious Chinese cleaver to cut the cake and to insure that no one got more than they deserved. No one dared argue with her.


Bogdan also had a great time, making sure that the refreshments kept on coming during the entire dinner.

And the music played on and on and on and on until we were all sick of the "Happy Birthday" song. Here Ivan tries to stop the music. It just would not stop. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Happy Birtday . . .