Lingyin Si

On Monday, because the conference was over, the university people started looking for ways to entertain us, since we don't start really teaching until next week. Two of the younger English teachers were nominated to give us a tour of downtown Hangzhou. The main attraction they took us to was this really huge temple in the middle of the city, near West Lake, called Lingyin Si.

This is the pretty much the oldest manmade cultural relic in Hangzhou, because everything else was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Actually, the current temple buildings are restorations, because since the original founding of the temple in 326 AD, it has burned down or been destroyed 16 times. So says my guidebook, anyway. According to our guides, everyone must enter the temple compound through the side gate because the main gate is only opened once every 100 years. They told us when the last time was, but I forget.

Inside the main gate is the Hall of the Four Heavenly Guardians, which are four huge statues representing the four cardinal directions. North is compassion, South is something like harsh discipline, West is defense against evil, and East is something pleasant having to do with playing music. In the middle is a gilt statue of the teaching Buddha on one side of the altar, and on the other a statue of the goddess of compassion. The ceiling is decorated with phoenixes above the guardians, and dragons above the Buddha.

Beyond the guardian hall, there are some stairs and gardens leading up to the main temple, which is a very large building. All of the eaves are painted in bright colors, and the end points are of course carved as dragons. Inside, there is another statue of the Buddha, this one 20 meters high. Around the sides of the altar room are other stone statues, and on the back of the Buddha's altar is a huge floor-to-ceiling carved and painted mural of the ascendency of a bunch of disciples.

In another building to the side of the main temple is a hall filled with 500 statues of all the different monks who, a couple centuries ago, came to the historic gathering of Buddhist leaders from around the world to Hangzhou in order to determine the future course of Buddhism. Each statue is unique. Many of them have quite a lot of character, like the one holding a frog like a pet.

After a stop to browse for souvenirs, we decided it was too hot to really walk around West Lake, so we should take the bus tour. The bus was open air, and I assure you, the breeze was quite welcome. It's sometimes hard to believe how humid China is. We didn't understand any of the tour, but the view was nice. West Lake is the most famous site in all of Hangzhou, surrounded by tea houses and gardens.

Before we went back to the college, we ended the downtown experience by eating dinner in what looked like a large hotel restaurant. We were surrounded by a huge US choir group, and I think one of their tour guides was confused as to whether we were supposed to be part of her group or not. The food, as always in China, was plentiful, and we were all quite full when we were put in cabs back to the college.