Lingyin-Feilai Feng (Temple of Soul's Retreat)

Talk about a religious experience!  On Wednesday, my family and I planned to visit Lingyin Temple. According to our tour booklet, the origin of the temple itself dates back to the "Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420AD) when, according to local legend, Huili an Indian monk came to the area where he was inspired by the spiritual nature of the scenery to be found here. To his mind this had to be a dwelling of the Immortals and so he gave the temple a name Temple of the Soul's Retreat" (Travel China Guide).  For a complete description of the temple and the history behind it, I suggest that you visit The Online China Travel Guide.   

The site itself is comprised of several halls, including The Hall of Heavenly Kings, Grand Hall of the Great Sage, Hall of the Medicine Buddha, Hall of the 500 Arhats, the Sutra Library, and the Huayan Hall.  Each is elaborately decorated and contains buddhist artwork that is centuries old. In the center courtyard, torches burn so that pilgrims may light their incense and pray to the Buddha and his bodhisattvas.  Thus, the air is pungent with the smell of incense and you can hear the whisper of prayers and chants mingling with the birds singing overhead.  

After wandering through each of the halls, I spotted a monk in his golden robes making his way toward the great hall, where a drum was silently calling people to prayer.  I followed and soon found myself in the hall, where an assemblage of buddhist monks and lay people were gathering for the afternoon chant.  The chanting began as a low murmur, but as the crowd began to fall into the rhythm of their practice, and the energy of prayer filled the space, their chanting rose to an intensified buzzing. I felt my body grow warm and my heart kept beat with the cadence of the chanting.  In fact, I was so overwhelmed by the experience that I had to leave before it was through in order to steady myself.  I have never witnessed anything more enrapturing or powerful than those few minutes.  As a practicing western buddhist, it filled me with great joy to be in a space of such devotion and zeal.

 I must also tell you, though, about the path we took en route to the temple itself, however, as this was an equally otherworldly experience.  The temple is situated in the Wulin Mountains, which are rugged, rocky mountains, that remind me a lot of the Berkshires.  As you make your way up the hill to the temple, the rock face is decorated with hundreds of statues and rock carvings, which were meticulously chiseled into the earth by monks from the 10th to the 14th centuries.  Below the stone buddhas and bodhisattvas runs a lazy brook, filled with equally lazy koi fish.  Shahriar, the girls and I spent hours weaving in and out of the caves, breathing in the beauty of each stone masterpiece we encountered. As we left that afternoon, Nora said to me, "That was one of the best things I've ever done in my life!" I couldn't agree more.

 

Lingyin-Feilai Feng (Temple of Soul's Retreat)

Talk about a religious experience!  On Wednesday, my family and I planned to visit Lingyin Temple. According to our tour booklet, the origin of the temple itself dates back to the "Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420AD) when, according to local legend, Huili an Indian monk came to the area where he was inspired by the spiritual nature of the scenery to be found here. To his mind this had to be a dwelling of the Immortals and so he gave the temple a name Temple of the Soul's Retreat" (Travel China Guide).  For a complete description of the temple and the history behind it, I suggest that you visit The Online China Travel Guide.   

The site itself is comprised of several halls, including The Hall of Heavenly Kings, Grand Hall of the Great Sage, Hall of the Medicine Buddha, Hall of the 500 Arhats, the Sutra Library, and the Huayan Hall.  Each is elaborately decorated and contains buddhist artwork that is centuries old. In the center courtyard, torches burn so that pilgrims may light their incense and pray to the Buddha and his bodhisattvas.  Thus, the air is pungent with the smell of incense and you can hear the whisper of prayers and chants mingling with the birds singing overhead.  

After wandering through each of the halls, I spotted a monk in his golden robes making his way toward the great hall, where a drum was silently calling people to prayer.  I followed and soon found myself in the hall, where an assemblage of buddhist monks and lay people were gathering for the afternoon chant.  The chanting began as a low murmur, but as the crowd began to fall into the rhythm of their practice, and the energy of prayer filled the space, their chanting rose to an intensified buzzing. I felt my body grow warm and my heart kept beat with the cadence of the chanting.  In fact, I was so overwhelmed by the experience that I had to leave before it was through in order to steady myself.  I have never witnessed anything more enrapturing or powerful than those few minutes.  As a practicing western buddhist, it filled me with great joy to be in a space of such devotion and zeal.

 I must also tell you, though, about the path we took en route to the temple itself, however, as this was an equally otherworldly experience.  The temple is situate in the Wulin Mountains, which are rugged, rocky mountains, that remind me a lot of the Berkshires.  As you make your way up the hill to the temple, the rock face is decorated with hundreds of statues and rock carvings, which were meticulously chiseled into the earth by monks from the 10th to the 14th centuries.  Below the stone buddhas and bodhisattvas runs a lazy brook, filled with equally lazy koi fish.  Shahriar, the girls and I spent hours weaving in and out of the caves, breathing in the beauty of each stone masterpiece we encountered. As we left that afternoon, Nora said to me, "That was one of the best things I've ever done in my life!" I couldn't agree more.

 

Oh yeah...I'm also here to work!

Of course, I'm also here to work, you know! So I suppose I should relate some of my classroom experiences too. My history class is moving along.  I now have three students, as Jeffrey, who was initially in B group, needed to be challenged more.  He's a great addition--even spent a summer at Space Camp in Alabama! Yesterday we talked more about why perspective is so important when thinking about an historical event.  We are still using the Native American experience as our platform for discussion.  I shared this quotation from Adam Smith: "The discovery of America was one of the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind."  We then read a poem by Native American poet, Hazel Gay Lee, who offers a different account.  Here's an excerpt:

From here, we looked at the cultural differences that may have contributed to European-Americans' treatment of the native peoples, taking time to particularly look at videos of what life in a Wampanoag village might have been like (thanks, Plimoth Plantation!).  Today we will jump ahead and look at the Trail of Tears from multiple perspectives. I'm not entirely sure how much the kids are getting, but they are engaged and definitely have a good understanding of three terms and their connection--history, identity and perspective. 

And then there was my topics class.  This is a 90-minute class in which all 14 students are with me and I am tasked with teaching something that they all can understand, regardless of english ability.  I chose to talk about folktales and the West African character, Anansi the Spider.  We all sat in a circle and I would tell a story, and then play it on the whiteboard.  We then discussed the idea of values and brainstormed what values were being emphasized. The kids drew pix of Anansi. Here are a few of my faves: 

What I've Learned About China Thus Far: Musings Based on Minimal Experience

Though I am by no means an expert on Hangzhou, China--in just a few, short, immersive days, I I've learned a few things:

1. Most Chinese people do NOT speak English, or rather, are unwilling to speak it....I'm not quite sure which...maybe a bit of both.  I don't know why I was surprised by this, but I was.  It has been a humbling and remarkably frustrating experience to try and live in a world where yours is not the primary language that those around you converse in.  (I now have a much better sense of what my international students go through!)
2. Culture shock is a very real thing. And sometimes it's painful!
3. Hailing a taxi in a city filled with taxis, is not for the faint of heart.  Drivers will refuse you...a LOT!
4. Often, what the menu SAYS in English is not what you ultimately get.  This requires flexibility and an adventurous palette. 
   
5. Academics are taken very seriously and there is little time for students to just be kids.
6. One can in fact go through social media withdrawal, which is also a bit painful, but probably good for the soul.
7. It's much easier to eat with wooden chopsticks than with metal ones. 
8. You can basically fry and eat almost anything.  Incidentally, this is also something that I learned while living in South Carolina, but it is equally true for China.
9. Starbucks is taking over the world.
10. This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!

 

Hefang Street

Last night, the family and I ventured with some friends down to Hefang Street.  According to 'China TourGuide',

"Hefang Old Street in Hangzhou is unique by showcasing a variety of Chinese crafts, such as land-blown sugar candy, paper-cutting and hand-made dough figurines. You can also find a large variety of local snacks such as roasted walnuts, and "dragon-whisker" candy. The street is full of art hawkers, candy sculptors, pillow shops, caricaturists, old-fashioned movie players, storytellers, bonsai shops, teahouses, and an array of small eateries."

For hours, we wandered in and out of shops, stopping to take photographs, to buy gifts,  talk with the locals and to taste the delicious food.  It was a lovely time. Not much more to say about it, except that I want to go back and do it all again!

        

The 'Coca-Cola' of China

Wahaha--the organization that is hosting this summer program and built the beautiful school that I am teaching in--is basically the China equivalent of Coca-Cola Industries.  In other words, we are teaching in phenomenal facilities!

 I have a smartboard and air conditioning...and two students!  Yes, two!  It turns out that while this is indeed a fantastic program and the grounds are quite lovely, the school is still rather young and thus, there were only 14 students who applied to this session.  So, we have 8 teachers and 14 kids.  I'm with two high school students--a boy and a girl.  Their english is pretty solid and they seem to be keeping up with the material, but I've had to slow. way. down.  Good practice for someone who generally speaks a mile a minute!  Yesterday we began our first lesson with a discussion about the role that perspective plays in historical interpretation and why a good historian will look at a variety of perspectives to understand an event.  'But what if some perspectives are left out?', Jamie asked?  What a fantastic question, right?  So, in keeping with her question, I thought it might be cool to look at two groups in America whose perspectives were largely ignored, but who made significant contributions to the development of the United States-- Native Americans and African Americans. The goal will be to think about the role that history plays in shaping one's identity even if his or her people's perspectives are overlooked.

Today, we talked about Columbus' discovery of America and his treatment of the Taino people. We read aloud excerpts from his diary and asked ourselves, 'Who is his intended audience?' and 'What is HIS perspective of the peoples whom he encountered? We looked at what he said, but also what he didn't say and tried to make sense of why that might be.  We then asked, 'How might the Taino have interpreted this very same event?' From there, we delved into an overview of the impact of the meeting of these two cultures--the Spanish and the Taino, by reading a bit of Las Casas and watching a Native American retelling of the first encounter.  As the class drew to a close, I asked my students, 'Given what we know now, what are your thoughts about the fact that Americans celebrate Columbus Day?'  This led to a wonderful discourse about the difficulties but importance of remembering all history, good or bad. 'As long as we remember to think about perspective, right?' Yibo asked.  Indeed.

This afternoon, I will have all fourteen kids (ages 8-17) in the classroom, and I'll introduce African storytelling by retelling some of my favorite Anansi stories.  The kids will then ask to identify a value that they hear being emphasized in the stories and will draw a picture. I'll share them here in the coming days.

In the meantime, here is a picture of my colleagues, Fred and Kim teaching their students earlier today! Forgive the poor quality. These are iphone pix!

 

The Journey Begins

Day 1: I'm not going to lie.  While the opportunity to spend two weeks in China sounded like the chance of a lifetime, the closer I got to my departure, the more anxious I became.  After all, when I did a similar trip to Ghana in 2010, I had minimal contact time with my students and I contracted an intestinal parasite on Day 2 of my two-week visit, which ultimately put me in the hospital.  But this time, things are different.  I'm traveling with two other teachers from Dana Hall AND my lovely family! Here we are below in the Hongqiao Railway Station.

We arrived in Shanghai on the evening of Friday, July 8.  The first thing that I felt was the heat and humidity. It actually reminded me a lot of Ghana. We haggled...rather successfully, I might add, with a gentleman who arranged for a van to take us to our hotel.  Our driver spoke no english and we speak no Chinese, which soon became an issue when he got lost.  Nevertheless, we weaved in and out of the streets of the Pudong district of Shanghai, taking in the sights and smells. I'm in awe of the sheer number of people everywhere. As you look at the skyline, We literally fell into our beds at the hotel.

Day 2:  Up early and we made our way to the Honqiao Station.  Our first meal in China?  Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I know, you're probably thinking, "You're in China...eat Chinese food!" However, anyone with teenaged daughters will understand that this was a peace offering of sorts, to ensure contentment down the road!  So, we ate our chicken, got some coffee at Starbucks and waited for our train to Hangzhou.  The trains are remarkable!  We sat in first class at a cost of about $18 per person, and the train agents served us iced cream and other delicacies, as we whizzed past small villages and rice fields.  We were met by two teaching assistants from the Wahaha Bilingual School, who dropped us off at our apartments, where we will be staying with not only the other teachers, but also the students. Here is a nighttime view from our apartment.

We soon met up with two of my Dana Hall colleagues--Fred and Kim, and we all shared a delightful Chinese meal together at a family restaurant around the corner.  We ordered a LOT of food, which surprised the waitstaff, who kept eyeballing us as we attempted to determine the various delicacies we had selected from the menu.  Let me stop here and tell you that the inability to read in another language is a HUGE disability. Case in point--I selected from the menu, a dish of sauteed green beans. Little did I know that they were sauteed in hot pepper.  Without thinking, I popped several beans into my mouth.  Truly I have never tasted anything as hot as these.  They burned my lips, my tongue, my throat.  I thought I might pass out--I kid you not!  Thankfully, we had chosen several other dishes that more than made up for the bean fiasco, but I was still reeling from the meal hours later!  Interestingly, despite all of that food, the entire bill for six people came to about $40. I could absolutely get used to those prices!