by Jim Goodman
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| Yuantong Temple, in the heart of Old Kunming |
Compared to some of their
neighbors, like the Tibetans, Thais and Burmese, the Han Chinese as a whole
have not been especially noted for their religious piety and practice. The country has always had temples and
monasteries, but these were mainly for private devotional exercises or
retreats. Individuals might spend
many years or even a lifetime in a monastery, but not, like in Thailand or
Myanmar, because the culture required at least a temporary monastic residence
for males. Chinese monks did not
go out in public in the mornings with their begging bowls, either, and lay
devotees did not include among their pious acts the grueling Tibetan custom of
successive full body prostrations.
And there was no Chinese city where religious architecture dominated
most of the urban area, as at Angkor, Bagan or even Chiang Mai.
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| the West Pagoda, from the Nanzhao era |
Kunming was no exception. The city certainly had houses of
worship since its founding, but they were not impressive enough to have left
any trace, physically or historically.
The earliest surviving religious monuments went up during the Nanzhao
Era, when it was the second most important city in the empire. These are the East Pagoda and the West
Pagoda, about 200 meters apart from each other in the southern part of the
city. They were originally part of
the Chengle and Huiguang Temples, which disappeared log ago.
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| the East Pagoda |
Built in the close-eaves style
in the mid-9th century, ten and thirteen stories high, they resemble
the Lone Pagoda in Dali or the central tower of the Three Pagodas. With minor renovations, the taller West
Pagoda has stood ever since. The
East Pagoda fell in earthquakes in the Yuan and Qing Dynasties and its current
incarnation dates to the late 19th century.
The most recent renovation,
around the beginning of this century, involved paving the road to the West
Pagoda and lining both sides of this street, closed to vehicular traffic, with
shops, teahouses and restaurants built in classical Chinese style. At the same time the city reconstructed
the former South Gate, next to the West Pagoda, which had been demolished in
the early 50s.
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| the main worship hall in Yuantong Temple |
Besides Chengle and Huiguang
Temples, the Buddhist Yuantong Temple was also built in Nanzhao times, actually
a century earlier. Nothing of the
original building has survived, but after the Mongols conquered Yunnan in
mid-13th century, the province’s first governor, Ajali Shams al-Din
Omar, a Muslim, had it rebuilt. He
also sponsored the construction in the city of two mosques and a Confucian
temple, which doubled as a school and a center for the promotion of Confucian
ideas and customs.
In the late 14th
century the Ming Dynasty replaced the Yuan Dynasty and by 1382 had expelled the
Mongols from their last stronghold Yunnan. Ming officials surrounded the city with a fortified wall. The Ming governor’s palace was first set
up on an island in Green Lake, not far from Yuantong Temple, at the foot of
Yuantong Hill in the center of the old city.
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| stairway to the pond, Yuantong Temple |
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| mythical beast in Yuantong Temple |
It was the largest monastery
within the city walls. Expansion
and renovation in later centuries have given it its present look, filling the
compound with buildings in the Ming and Qing style. Its four gardens contain specimens of all the main
flowering trees in the province, each blossoming at a different time. Thus, no matter what month it is,
flowers of some kind are blooming in Yuantong Temple
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| shrine in the Tanhua Temple compound |
Today it is still a quiet,
capacious and beautiful sanctuary in the heart of an otherwise noisy, bustling
modern city. Placed around a pond,
the orange-red sloping roofs of its buildings reflect in the waters, as do the
white stone bridges connecting them.
Carvings of mythical animals decorate the railings of the bridges and
potted plants fill the steps to the edge of the pond.
The older buildings feature
embellishments of carvings, paintings and calligraphy. The Buddhist imagery inside is derived
from both the Mahayana and Tibetan traditions. And the newest building in the compound, erected late last
century, is a Theravada-style shrine housing a golden Buddha image donated by
devotees from Thailand.
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| pavilion in Tanhua Temple |
During the Ming Dynasty the
suburbs beyond the city walls did not extend anywhere near as far as now. Forests lay beyond and in quiet,
secluded spots on the slopes of the hills religious-minded patrons sponsored
the building of temples. Most were
too far for an ordinary excursion, though they are easy to reach by car or bus
now. One such temple, Tanhuasi,
built in 1634, lies near the end of Renminlu, just four km from the city
center. Named for the ephyllium
tree (a species of magnolia) in the courtyard, it was probably the ex-urban
temple most frequented by Old Kunming residents. As they do today, people came to offer prayers, observe
religious holidays, or just for the pleasures of the outing, the smell of the
flowers and the appreciation of the rockeries, the ponds and the entire temple
setting.
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| interior of a Tanhua Temple shrine |
Even today, with buildings,
roads and overpasses occupying what was once a wooded area, Tanhua Temple
retains its charm. Just far enough
from the main roads to be beyond its noise and stench, the compound consists of
three main sections that rise gently up a slope. The first contains several courtyards grouped around the
main temple, on the walls of which are mounted individual images of the 500
Buddhist arhats (saints), inscribed
on stone slabs. Courtyards feature
rockeries, ponds, pavilions, sitting halls, potted flower plants, blossoming
trees and Chinese couplets inscribed on marble slabs.
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| view of Kunming from a Tanhua Temple pond |
The next section up is laid
out more like a classical park, with its pavilions, shade trees, tables,
sitting halls and morning tai qi
exercisers. Ascending the knoll
behind brings the visitor to a graceful seven-story pagoda, up which one can climb
for a grand view of Kunming. The
city is also visible from the pond in front of the pagoda. The entire compound is an oasis of
serenity in modern Kunming.
Further away, seven km
northeast of the city center, lies the Daoist Golden Temple. It comprises several buildings on the
gentle slope of Mingfengshan—the Hill of Singing Phoenixes, near the grounds of
the International Horticultural Exhibition. It must have been an all-day excursion in Old Kunming days,
but modern transportation has reduced the journey to a short bicycle. bus or
automobile ride. Like Tanhua
Temple and forest temples in the hills beyond Kunming, its many trees and
flowers give it the atmosphere of being ensconced by Nature.
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| pagoda at the top of the Tanhua Temple compound |
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| pavilion in the Golden Temple compound |
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In between the buildings, walkways lead past the old pines and cypresses
to gardens of camellias or azaleas and to the Bell Tower, from the top of which
one can view the distant hills behind the skyscrapers of Kunming. The three entry gates at successive
points on the hill are notable for the decorative carved and painted brackets
supporting their roofs.
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| roof sculptures, the Golden Temple |
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| worshipers at the Golden Temple |
For the dedicated pilgrims of
the past, as well as curious contemporary travelers, other temples in the
nearby hills featured compounds also notable for their seclusion, closeness to
nature, ancient trees, architectural embellishments and sculptural
achievements. The most worthwhile
site was the Western Hills, 2500 meters high at the summit, towering above the
northwest shore of Dian Lake, 16 km from the city. Most visitors nowadays are tourists, foreign and domestic, who
arrive in vehicles and head straight to the top in them, or take the recently
installed cable car. Proper
pilgrims were supposed to walk up the mountain, which only takes a couple of
hours, stopping at the temples en route.
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| Huating Temple,Western Hills |
The first and lowest is Huating
Monastery. This Buddhist temple
was first built in 1320, renovated in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and last
rebuilt in 1920. Besides the
imposing guardian statues and images of the Buddha in various guises, the
temple’s interior holds 500 sculptures of Buddhist arhats. They are
largely in high relief on the walls of the main worship hall and are remarkable
for their realism and individuality.
Predating Huating is the next
temple up the hill--two km by road, slightly shorter by footpath through the forest. This Chan (Zen) Buddhist temple was
built in 1302 by the monk Xuan Jian and is called Taihuasi. A 600 year-old gingko tree rises above
the gate. The complex includes
pavilions beside the 1000 square-meter Blue Pond, itself embellished with rockeries,
islets and walkways. Another
pavilion, the Sea Viewing Pavilion, offers a long view of Dian Lake.
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| Daoist shrine, Western Hills |
Even grander views are
possible from the next temple up--the Songqingge Daoist Temple. Though one can drive up the mountain
road to the entrance, the true pilgrim prefers the winding stone staircase of
over 1000 steps that begins at the base of the hill. The buildings belonging to
this complex are stacked above each other on the steep side of the
mountain. Even higher, perching on
a sheer, perpendicular cliff, is Dragon Gate, the goal of every visitor, the
greatest viewpoint in the Kunming area.
The view is all the more appreciated because of the arduous task of
getting there, which is by squeezing in and out of small grottoes chiseled out
of the rock by Qing Dynasty monks.
The slow and dangerous work took 72 years and the final passageway was
completed in 1853. It replaced a
hazardous, rickety plank road attached to the cliff face.
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| arhat with especially long eyebrows |
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| Dragon Gate, high up the Western Hills |
Northwest of Kunmimg, about 13
km from the center, the Bamboo Temple (Qiongzhusi) lies on a wooded slope of
Jade Table Mountain (Yu'anshan).
This Buddhist monastery was originally founded by a monk from Kunming
who studied the Chan sect in central China for 25 years around the end of the
Song Dynasty. Within the main hall
one of the many inscribed tablets dates from the Yuan Dynasty and is
bilingual--Mongolian and vernacular Chinese. Standing in the courtyard are two 600 year-old cedar trees.
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| the Black Dragon on Wubaoshan |
The outstanding feature of
this temple is its collection of 500 painted clay sculptures of Buddhist arhats. The work of a mid-Qing Dynasty sculptor from Sichuan, Li
Guangxiu, and his apprentices, the statues all differ from each other, modeled
on real and unique contemporary originals. Faces display the whole gamut of possible expressions. Some are kindly and some are
fierce. Some are sedate or
contemplative and others are active, even chatting or laughing. No two are the same and the dress,
hairstyle and props are also unique to each statue. According to local legend, if a visitor begins counting the
statues, starting from the beginning of any row, and comes to the number
matching his or her age, that statue will symbolically represent the visitor's
dominant inner character.
On Wubaoshan, 11 km north of
Kunming, lies the early Ming era Black Dragon Palace. First erected in 1394 and redone in 1454, it stands beside Black
Dragon Pool and was formerly the site of temples in the Han, Tang and Yuan
Dynasties, all destroyed by war.
But a Tang era plum tree, a Song Dynasty cypress and a Ming camellia
tree still stand in the compound, still blossoming every Lunar New Year. A statue of the black dragon also
stands in the courtyard. A
companion compound in the adjacent woods, the Dragon Fountain Palace, comprises
several halls dedicated to the Jade Emperor and other Daoist deities.
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| Black Dragon Pool |
Daoist legend states that
Black Dragon Pool is the home of a small black dragon, confined there by the
Immortal Lu Dongbin after he subdued nine bigger dragons that were causing
floods. The last one he commanded
to do good for humans and supposedly, once the ancient inhabitants started
drawing its water to irrigate their fields, the little black dragon made sure
the pool never ran dry, even in years of drought. About 600 square meters in area and 11 meters deep, a bridge
separates it from a half-meter deep pool that is five times its size. Pavilions on the edge are for watching
fish; the odd thing about them is that, though the water of the two ponds is
connected, the fish that swim in one pool never pay a visit to the other.
Kunming keeps
sprawling closer to these forest temples and one day in the future urban
neighborhoods will surround them.
But, like Tanhuasi and the Golden Temple, the city will not swallow
them. They will remain places of
refuge from urban congestion, where people can relax, commune with nature and
even, as their builders originally intended, worship their gods.
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| stone bridge in Yuantong Temple |
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