Mt. Emei is one of the four famous Buddhist Mountain in China with an altitude of 3066m. This was where Samantabhadra Bodhisattva practiced his meditation, for which his statue in the Wannian Temple on the mountain has become the most famous.
We had morning call at 6 am, traveled in a cozy environmentally friendly coach for 2 hours to reach the foot of Mt Emei. Mt. Emei lies in the SW Sichuan, 130 km from Chengdu.
To go to the summit of Mt. Emei, we took a cable car from here.
It was unforgettable, as the journey was windy, scary with the bravado stunts of the reckless driver! Moreover, with increasing altitude, air became thinner which began to take its toll on us who were poor traveler with poor balancing ability! Finally, a 10 minute cable car ride (packed with passengers) took us to the top (not the summit yet) of Mt. Emei.
Few managed to reach the top. Shy to say that none from our group belongs to this high achievers.
The word Emei always conjures up a picturesque and misty landscape, with a Chinese kungfu master displaying his skillful martial art, on a steep cliff, overlooking a a sea of cloud, pierced through with sun's rays.
This is exactly what Mt. Emei is:
Notice the sun's ray, the temple at the tip overlooking the cliff, the walk track - characteristic of the Emei
It is well-known for its picturesque landscape, spectacular scenery of sunrise, sunset, cloud sea, Buddha's halo, rich Buddhist sites and Chinese martial art. The martial art of Mt Emei is one of the three main Chinese genres and is famous internationally too. Mt. Emei was made a UNESCO World Heritage in 1996.
Omg, I still need to toll up hundreds of steps to reach the summit. Look could be deceiving - I was still very far from the highest point in the background, with the most famous 7.3-meter tall bronze statue of Bodhisattva Puxian or Samantabhadra on elephant.
Many of us turned out to be losers, giving up climbing long before the destination. Air was thin, weather was cold, with dizzy coach ride....what else? But this guy put all of us to shame:
This man served as means of transport for goods and commodities, from the cable car station to the shops near the summit. And he did that 20 times a day, everyday, for livelihood. Live is tough and he is tough. Here we are, a group of highly pampered tourists, many had to stop 1/10 of his way to destination. We are lembek!
We finally reached the peak of Mt. Emei, at the Jingdin or Golden Summit. Right behind us is the famous 7.3-meter tall bronze statue of Bodhisattva Puxian or Samantabhadra on elephant, built in Wannian Temple, classified as a Class 1 protected cultural relics of China.
We had morning call at 6 am, traveled in a cozy environmentally friendly coach for 2 hours to reach the foot of Mt Emei. Mt. Emei lies in the SW Sichuan, 130 km from Chengdu.
To go to the summit of Mt. Emei, we took a cable car from here.
It was unforgettable, as the journey was windy, scary with the bravado stunts of the reckless driver! Moreover, with increasing altitude, air became thinner which began to take its toll on us who were poor traveler with poor balancing ability! Finally, a 10 minute cable car ride (packed with passengers) took us to the top (not the summit yet) of Mt. Emei.
Few managed to reach the top. Shy to say that none from our group belongs to this high achievers.
The word Emei always conjures up a picturesque and misty landscape, with a Chinese kungfu master displaying his skillful martial art, on a steep cliff, overlooking a a sea of cloud, pierced through with sun's rays.
This is exactly what Mt. Emei is:
Notice the sun's ray, the temple at the tip overlooking the cliff, the walk track - characteristic of the Emei
It is well-known for its picturesque landscape, spectacular scenery of sunrise, sunset, cloud sea, Buddha's halo, rich Buddhist sites and Chinese martial art. The martial art of Mt Emei is one of the three main Chinese genres and is famous internationally too. Mt. Emei was made a UNESCO World Heritage in 1996.
Omg, I still need to toll up hundreds of steps to reach the summit. Look could be deceiving - I was still very far from the highest point in the background, with the most famous 7.3-meter tall bronze statue of Bodhisattva Puxian or Samantabhadra on elephant.
Many of us turned out to be losers, giving up climbing long before the destination. Air was thin, weather was cold, with dizzy coach ride....what else? But this guy put all of us to shame:
This man served as means of transport for goods and commodities, from the cable car station to the shops near the summit. And he did that 20 times a day, everyday, for livelihood. Live is tough and he is tough. Here we are, a group of highly pampered tourists, many had to stop 1/10 of his way to destination. We are lembek!
We finally reached the peak of Mt. Emei, at the Jingdin or Golden Summit. Right behind us is the famous 7.3-meter tall bronze statue of Bodhisattva Puxian or Samantabhadra on elephant, built in Wannian Temple, classified as a Class 1 protected cultural relics of China.
One of the first Buddhist temples in China was built in Mount Emei in 1 AD. Today there are about 30 temples, among which the Baoguo Temple, the Wanian Temple, the Qingyin Pavilion, the Crouching Tiger Temple, the Huayan Temple are amongst the most famous. These temples abound with Buddhist statues made of materials like clay, wood, jade, bronze and iron. They are vividly sculptured, many of which are national treasures.
Continued from yesterday when we took a cable car to the mountain top; today, we started from the lowest level of the foothill of Mt. Emei.
Caddy took us to the foothill from our Hotel, 5 minutes of comfortable, breezy ride in early dawn.
The first temple we reached at the lowest level of Mt. Emei, was the CrouchingTiger Temple.
On the way to the Huayan Yemple. Xiang helping the village lady to sell the local kiwi from the jungle. Smaller (of course, without fertilizer), sweeter, and healthier organic kiwi.
In case you don't know, Kiwi fruits was native to China, called Mihou Tao (Macaque peach). It was introduced to New Zealand, due to its gooseberry flavour, was named the Chinese gooseberry, and finally got its name as Kiwifruit in 1959.
The Huanyan Temple at the second level of the Mt. Emei foothill. It houses the oldest relics in the temple, the 7 m copper pagoda, built in the Ming Dynasty, with exquite and vivid sculptures of Buddha, bodhisattvas, figurines, lions and elephants.
With the back facing me was tour guide Choo Liang. I should say that he was a very good tour guide, his story-telling talents made our journey very interesting and informative.
He was a great story teller. Take for example, while we were on our way to the jade outlet, he started telling us stories about jade, quoting a few incidences when broken a jade helped to buffer off some misfortune; how to distinguish a real jade from a fake one, the different classes of jade, the latest developments about jade...etc. In the same way, we listen attentively to his stories of silk, of 'bian nian' or change face, the Leshan Buddha, the 2000 year old irrigation structure of Dujiangyan, the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, his interesting and touching life as a patriotic soldier in the Chinese Liberation Army, a nationalistic Chinese of Mongolian origin.
As a compliment, a tour under his guide would be one that is worth the bucks, interesting, informative, unforgettable and enjoyable, and full of suspense!
Last place before we depart Mt. Emei was the Baoguo Temple: magnificent, ancient in culture and antique in look, like all other temples here in Emei.
Baoguo Temple, name by the emperor of Qing Dynasty, at the foot of Mt.Emei, housing the precious Buddhist statue.
This 'Ding' at the Baoguo Temple has the name of (Chow) Kok Kee as you can see, ha !
After visits of the three temples, we gathered around the waterfall to take a few final shots.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment