Photos

Sorry, I couldn’t keep away from the monks any longer. Especially since today, I spent the afternoon in a tiny Chinese Mahayana temple in the Sampeng area. I took my seat before the service began and soon a nice man came and asked if I wanted to take photographs. Well! the camera and tripod must have been a hint. It transpired he was the president of the temple. As soon as they realized that I intended to join in the ceremony as well as take pictures he was even more welcoming. I was taken to meet the Abbot, the head of this sect, and given tea with him. Then I was seated on the floor with the temple officials, right in the middle of the ceremony and given every facility to take my pictures. As it happened I got very few good pictures because I find handling the light in these temples very difficult and many of my shorts are soft. This is one that is sharp.

Unlike our Theravada Buddhism, which is rather austere, without much ceremony, Mahayana Buddhism is full of music, incense and exotic ceremonies. The ceremonies are accompanied by a full Chinese orchestra, with cymbals and drums etc. Their chanting, which lasts for hours, is wonderfully melodic and sad.

Buddhism spread south from India through Srilanka and South East Asia, as Theravada; and north, through Tibet and China as Mahayana. (A bit like Catholic and Protestant, Sunni and Shier: Orthodox and Reformed)

This therefore, is Buddhism with a Chinese face, noisy, colorful and exotic. In today’s weather, being in the temple was like sitting in an oven. We were kept supplied with cool water and hot tea throughout the three hour ceremony, but I still felt sodden and dehydrated.
Before the end of the day I felt like one of the family, I had agreed to join the temple committee as their English language adviser (I am useless at saying ‘no’). They wanted me to help in their anti-drug work in China Town. I agreed and a tailor duly arrived and measured me up, right there in the middle of the ceremony. So now I will have a magnificent uniform as an official of the temple and I will get to wear it next time.
So that was my day, and here is the picture.