Wenshu Temple
This fine Sunday Chengdu morning found Chris and I around the breakfast table with two new friends and their adorable offspring. We talked, we laughed, and we ate caramelized apples and utterly heavenly, homemade bagels, among other things.
After breakfast and badly in need of some exercise, we rolled, quite bagel-like actually, out the door and on our way to Wenshu Temple in the north of the city.
I expected the newly constructed “old village” streets surrounding the temple, along with the souveniers and noodle vendors. What I didn’t expect was to find the temple so peaceful, colorful, even reverent.
They say temple attendance and worship in China is skyrocketing. Perhaps its a way to deal with all of the uncertainty as buildings go up and down and lives change faster than even the fashions coming out of Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Even so, Wenshu Temple is rare among the many temples in the area in that it is still a place of active worship. There are girls in miniskirts bowing uncertainly in front of alters. There are elders who leave their purses and shoes on benches to chant, ring bells, and walk in prayer circles. Everywhere in the temple smells of incense as smoky prayers rise on the breeze.
There are beautiful gardens everywhere. Everything is quiet and peaceful.
All in all, it was a beautiful day. More photos here.
That’s fascinating! We actually have a Chinese temple here in the Chinatown of Houston, TX which is very active. I look forward to visiting these in Taiwan.
Why is it so rare for it to be used for active worship? As far as I’ve been able to tell with my girlfriend’s family, Chinese (at least Taiwanese) are pretty religious.
And I wanted to leave a shameless blog plug. Not sure why my name doesn’t link to my blog.
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I think the lack of active worship might be a legacy of the Cultural Revolution but temple attendance is coming back up. Taiwanese and Mainland culture also seem to be vastly different-at least in my minimal experience.
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