Another temple - bear with me!

One of the most famous temples in Chengdu is Wenshu Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in Chengdu.  I wanted to go here just because I figured that if I was living in Chengdu, I at least needed to see one of its temples.  This temple is right off Chengdu’s only subway line and you think that it would be easy to find right?  

No.

  

Closed!  Oh no!

 Part of it was that the main entrance was not open.  And part of that was because, well, I dunno.  We were just being silly I guess.  And we were looking for the “tallest iron pagoda” in China.  Psh.  But more on that later.  The first time that we tried to find the temple, half of us were able to get inside, but I was a part of the half that just kind of failed at basic common sense and navigation.  HOWEVER, we were able to find a nunnery and a neat pedestrian street!  

Nunnery – Something that was unexpected and really amazing.  We just wandered in and one of the ladies started to teach us an Indian chant (at least it sounded like it) and then she just let us wander around.  All the nuns had their heads shaved, and let me tell you, Chinese ladies look stunning with their heads shaved.  Not that I would ever do that myself.  But Chinese ladies can pull it off.  It was a practicing monastery/nunnery and inside the temple portion was the usual statue of Buddha.  But instead of statues of male monks in front of the Buddha were also female monks.  That really sticks in my mind as especially unusual.  

The only picture of the nunnery that you will get.

Outside of the nunnery, we walked around the pedestrian street, and it was surprisingly empty.  I did find some neat souvenirs though.  I also ate me some deep fried Sichuan cricket.  And more sad, but I had to do it, was a seahorse.  Cricket was good.  That was an experience that I shared with my friends.  Good times!  Seahorse was not so good.  It tasted fine, but some parts of it were so hard that I wasn’t able to finish it and had to throw the rest away.  Sad day for being unable to conquer that particular challenge.  But a good day overall, if that makes sense.

Cricket on a stick.

 The second time that my friend, Alex, and I tried to find the temple was a success.  The ticket window that we had found previously was open, the main gate was open, and we got in with no problems.  Yay!

This had to be one of the best maintained temples that I have been to.  Well lit, pretty well dusted.  Even better were the grounds where monks are able to just enjoy their days and contemplate.  I think I always enjoy those outdoor parts the best.  There was also a library full of Buddhist teachings and a hall full of 1000 Buddhas.  So cool!  Each row of tiny Buddha statues had something a little different than the last.  Again, no pictures.  But if you get the chance, take a look at the ceiling.  I can’t tell you how much detail the Chinese have put into their religious places.  You could spend days at one place and never see all the details.

And the iron pagoda.  Man.  It was pretty big.  But it wasn’t nearly so tall that you could see it outside of the walls surrounding the monastery.  Which is why we couldn’t figure out if the walls we were walking around belonged to the monastery or not.  Talk about misleading.

Cool, even though it was so misleading.

 And once again, we headed to the pedestrian street to look at more souvenirs because the end of our time was definitely coming down on us!  Holy crap!  And it was there that we were pulled into a tea house and asked to sit.  I was immediately on guard because I didn’t know if it would be one of those situations where they would serve you and then charge you an obscene amount for a beverage.  But it was a nice tea performing ceremony, Alex bought some tea, and we escaped with no extra charges.  Whew!  

That was definitely a long one, so I’ll leave you with that!