Calm Spirit/Ying Yu Jade China Trip 2005

Buddhism and Daoism in the Feng Huang Shan (Phoenix Mountain)

The gate to the entrance of Feng Huang Shan (Phoenix Mountain) lets you know where you are even if you can't read Chinese. The large gold phoenix is prominently displayed. The weather here in the summer is generally cool, and frequently raining, We arrived during mid morning and the rain had just started, so we donned our rain slickers and started the climb. This is considered to be a "park", so there's an admission fee, and an opening and closing time. The road is not a through road that goes someplace other than to some of the facilities on the mountain. The Buddhist Monastery and Daoist Monastery are two of the facilities that are residences. I didn't ask the "what if" the monks need to leave the mountain when the park is "closed".

It's truly a huge mountain. We could see it from the train, so when my friend suggested we climb this mountain, I assumed he meant walk on it for awhile.

But he really did mean climb it! A couple years ago, he sent me a photo of himself, wife and son at the top of this mountain, but I had no idea how high and rugged this mountain is until we started walking. And we stayed on the road, not even trying to climb one of the treacherous, steep, slippery and very unsafe looking "paths". Even in the rain, people were climbing! They don't even show up in the photo because the Feng Huang Shan dwarfs them. My friend was disappointed I wasn't up to climbing the trails to the top, and I wanted to, but my husband and I decided it was too risky, and the thought of the rugged climb was too overwhelming. And we really are not "whoosie", but we're not reckless, either!

There were many Chinese people climbing the mountain, both on the trails, and on the road we stayed on for climbing. We encountered a large group of students from an agricultural university who were surprised to see "foreigners" but delighted to try their English with us. Some of them have very good English skills. Most of the English teachers are actually Chinese people who learned some English, but don't have a grasp of the grammar, so it's difficult to understand English speaking Chinese people outside of major cities. They actually asked if we were speaking English, because it sounded so unfamiliar to them.

About an hour later, we saw this Buddha niche carved into the mountain so we knew we were approaching one of the monasteries. The mountain is free of graffiti, but there is Buddhist, Daoist, and Chinese government propaganda inscriptions, as well. The Chinese government allows Buddhism and Daoism, but claims to supervise the religions so they are not "superstitious" and antigovernment. I have seen the influence of the government supervision in Beijing, but here, far away from Beijing, there is more freedom from government control.

A very steep climb finally gave us a view of the Buddhist Monastery. Most of it is being renovated. It is prohibited to take photos of the Buddhas, and rude to take photos of the monks, so there's a lot I would love to show, but can't.

We arrived during lunch, and many of the monks were gathered in their large dining room, quietly eating. We walked around to take some photos of the buildings, but the local Chinese people who were also visiting were very upset by our presence so I didn't take photos. They were even more distressed when I made the appropriate respectful prayer to Buddha and left money, so we started to leave.
Main entrance to Buddhist Monastery above and one of two huge phoenix statues at the entrance gate (right)
As we started to leave, a monk nun approached us and invited us to join them for lunch, as guests. When I saw the monks eating, I was thinking it would be exciting to be able to eat with them, and now we had an invitation. We were given a plain bowl, and several monk servers came by with pots and bowls of various vegetable, and rice, and bread. The food was so simple, but some of the best I had eaten in China.

The nun (I wish I had her name) then told us the the head monk asked us to visit with him, to build friendship. While we were walking to his meeting room, a large moth landed on the nun's brown robe, and stayed with her for almost the entire time we were there. She just smiled at it, and said something to it in Chinese. Through our Chinese friend, we had a visit with the head monk, discussed our visit to China, and he gave us photos and books about Buddhism and the monastery. He also gave us all a blessing,

As you can see from the above photo, the nun in the brown robe is a very animated person, with a great deal of energy. She coordinates many of the functions that connect the monastery to the "world". Her genuine happiness and serenity shine through and she embodies what you expect when you think of Buddhists living their belief.
She had "another life" before she came to the monastery. She has a daughter attending a university in Beijing and majoring in internet technology.

Another nun joined us. She is so humble and serene, and the other nun encouraged her to be in the photos we took of "the women". Tom was worried they might be recruiting me, as I do have fantasies about going to a monastery to live for a year!

This monastery visit was a very spiritually moving experience for me, and I still have so many thoughts and feelings about it, and it's difficult to write about it, to express my experience in words. I will probably add to this part when some time passes to get more perspective.

Next: A Visit to the Daoist Monastery

Ying Yu Jade
Calm Spirit Web Site
Contact: Email yingyujade@yingyujade.com

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