2013.6.28　Friday

 

        Today I went to the Nanyue Temple with my dear dad and uncle who is very familiar with the culture of Buddhism in Nanyue.

 

        I go to Nanyue Temple and climb Hengshan Mountain every year with my parents since I was 6 years old. That was when we moved to Henshan County, Hengyang City, Hunan Province. Now I'm 23 years old. However,  I don't understand well the great and amazing culture behind the spectacular temple until today. I feel so familiar with Nanyue Temple, but I know little about it.

 

        A week later, I will show my supervisor and her two foreigner friends around. One of them is the president of the State University of Arizona, USA, and the other one is his wife, who is very interested in Chinese culture. I want to show them a magnificent temple with mysterious and amazing culture. I learned so many legends and stories about it which I just ignored before from my dad and my uncle. For example, the history of Nanyue Temple, the design of the architecutal style and its meanings,  the legendary stories about the Buddas, their functions, the etiquettes when you get in or out the gate of each palace, the traditions of pilgrimage, the food the monks eat and their daily life and so on.  I was so facinated by them. Everything becomes more lively and admairing with the legends on it. Moreover, my uncle led our way to visit the Buddhist abbots of Zhusheng Temple, Nantai Temple and Fuyan Temple. It was my great honor to see them privately. They were so calm and serious, and of course look very amiable. Even though I didn't actually talk with them, my father and my uncle did. For me, it was very pleasure to hear. These temples are the essence of Nanyue Buddhist culture, which means, Nanyue is famous for them.

 

       Now I feel very very proud of being a local people for we live so close to the traditional culture. I'm going to collect more information about the culture here, so I can performance well to introduce Nanyue Temple to my supervisor and foreigners. I believe they will enjoy the oriental culture very much.

 

      I want to say that any mountain can be famous with the presence of an immortal; any river can be holy with the presence of a dragon. Nanyue District is a great place to live.  It has great Budda to protect it, high green mountains in row which are famous as longevous mountains and clear rivers. We have no earthquake, debris flow, even no flood or drought. Typhoon will bring us a lot of rain but not flood. We are protected, aren't we?

 

    That's all for today. My friend, if you want to come to Nanyue, I'd like to be your guide. It is said, come to see flowers in Spring, enjoy heavy clouds in Summer, watch sunrise in Autum, and appreciate rime in Winter. Whenever you come, you'll never be disappointed. Come on !