Buddhism

While my exposure to Buddhism has been quite limited in Europe and Africa (where I have previously lived), in South-East Asia it is everywhere. My basic pre-conceived idea of Buddhism; that it originated as the enlightening of Siddharta Gautama, the first Buddha, who then continued to teach his insights with other beings in order for them to end ignorance and suffering, was pretty crude, especially in light of the previous months travel.

Visiting the Tian Tan Buddha in my second week, this is the largest seated, ourdoor, bronze Buddha. Around 26 meters tall, it is located on south-west Lantau Island, up in the hills near the Po Lin Buddhist Monestary. Completed in 1993, it was made in order to give local Buddhists something to feel proud about, and to underline Hong Kong's melting pot of religions such as Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. The Buddha also contains a museum, within which there are exhibitions of calligraphy and poems, many of them drawn in blood (whose blood it did not say), and an enormous bell with hundreds of images of the Buddha carved onto it.



In China, I visited the Le Shan Buddha, which is the largest stone Buddha in the world. Literally carved into the side of a cliff, it stands (or rather, sits) 71 meters tall, and being build around the 8th century AD, it is by far the largest pre-modern statue. It was made in order to calm the three rivers which it overlooks, in order to lessen the wreckage they created to merchants further down stream. It worked, as the rivers slowed considerably from all the stone that was chiselled out from the cliff and dumped in the water. The Buddha is surrounded by an enormous temple complex, including beautiful parks, remote shrines and numerous temples.

Finally, on my penultimate day in Cheng Du, I visited the Sichuanese museum of crafts and art. There was very little information in English, but since it was free I decided to spend a couple of hours being cultural. Skilled craftsmanship in metals, jade, silk, embroidery and pottery were on display from 2500 B.C, and China's historic development in literature, calligraphy and trade seemed way ahead of many European nations. However, there was also a large exhibition on Buddhism, showing the evolution of the religion in Sichuan. Apparently a new line (or sub-division) of Buddhism developed from the merger with local customs and Taoist beliefs, which is practised in mainly in Tibet, Mongolia and other western outskirts of China and Russia. So visiting a Buddhist temple on the night of the Chinese New Year was a considerably different experience from visiting the Wong Tai Sin temple on the Kowloon Peninsula.

Regional differences such as these help explain a number of peculiar Chinese elements, such are people being more regionally oriented, rather than nationally oriented (so people would say: "I am from Beijing" rather than "I am from China"), and especially the Chinese government's interference in many areas in order to ensure stability. A difficult area, but looking at history in Europe could give some indication of what can happen - China is impeccably logical in many areas, just like its language.