Cranktum Cranktorum

A California friend breathlessly writes in to inquire whether I visited Beijing’s magnificent Lama Temple. Well, I did, but I wasn’t quite as taken with its magnificence as he was. This is, I’m sure, more my problem than the temple’s.

After taking in the Forbidden City, we rode Beijing’s fine new subway up to Lama Temple Land and narfed some very yummy Chinese chow. This should have put me in an expansive mood for the temple, one of the don't-miss sights of Beijing, but it didn’t. In fact, I was a royal crankypants. Here’s why.

First and worst, I wasn’t wearing my monk’s robes. I was advised to avoid them as an unwanted attention-getter at Chinese immigration; they weren’t appropriate for the business I had been asked to do; and on my tourist day, I knew Tiananmen and elsewhere would be so loaded with security, uniformed and otherwise, that I felt it best to keep a low profile since this probably won’t be my last visit there.

But going into the temple, a semi-living institution and probably the largest of its kind left standing in Beijing, I couldn’t shake the persistent feeling that I was an imposter, just one more unit in the throng of tourists.

It didn’t help that we arrived at 3:50 and the temple closed at 4:30. Or that they ding you for three bucks and then you get to walk a long phalanx of barked enticements from the shopkeepers who line the path before you enter the temple proper. I swear on a stack of sutras that this is the last time I buy a ticket for the privilege of entering a Buddhist temple, especially when it enriches people who swallow the line that religion is poison.

Can you tell I was in a mood? The temple was perfectly lovely, and at times downright awe-inspiring, such as in one temple in which you behold a 18-meter tall standing statue of Maitreya, the Buddha to come, carved (I just learned right here) from a single massive piece of white sandalwood.

But while there were genuine devotees offering incense and such, hordes of other tourists dutifully and uncomprehendingly shuffled from one shrine to the next, with a few brown-clad monks performing minor altar-maintenance duties. The whole air was of a live-action museum along the lines of Colonial Williamsburg, except with far less charm or interactivity. My neck stiffened under the palpable sense of monitoring and control, including clues everywhere if you knew what to look for of the insidious Chinese cooption of the Panchen Lama. I didn’t grumble when they started to shoo us out.

Before we left, though, I did zip through a special exhibit of Buddhist iconography, and snuck a pic of the only Padmasambhava image I found in Beijing, this truly lovely statue:

For sheer aesthetics, the temple and its contents are well worth a look, which you can do virtually here and here.

Since communication is my thing, and my ability to do so freely something I really cherish, what creeped me out the most about China was the tight fist terminally clenched around avenues of information. Cable TV was All China All The Time with nary a critical word or image anywhere. This piece at the Huffington Post chillingly surveys China’s crackdown on bloggers with Western corporate complicity, especially, it seems, from my email provider Yahoo. I couldn’t write DODR, or anything even resembling it, without risking a heavy jail sentence if I lived in Beijing (as a corollary, I had no success finding an internet café or a wireless hotspot, though I’m told both exist there). I honestly don’t know how they’re going to cope with the infinite numbers of news organizations that will descend for the ’08 Olympics.

On a more positive note is the AP piece on the wire today about a marvelously courageous new breed of Chinese human rights activists using ever more sophisticated communication networks to circumvent government repression and expose nasty rights violations to the light of the Chinese public’s conscience and the international community.

Oh, and though I didn’t get to do any genuine birding, just by scanning with the naked eye I received a lovely avian parting gift of two lifers: Azure-winged Magpie and Large-billed Crow.

Comments

[Tom Robertson]

The news agencies are going to have unpresidented access (according to a report I heard from BBC) but considering China's history with the Press, that isn't going to be a very high bar for China to walk over.

There will be lots of "typical chinese families" picnicing around the Press, certainly coincidentaly, mind you...

[Don]

Your blog is not blocked in China, so apparently to date you have not commited any actionable offenses. Mooj and Floki are safe for the moment. Two of my domains, doncroner.com and doncroner.net are blocked, although it is not at all clear to me what offense I am guilty of. To check very quickly on who is blocked in China and who is not see Great Fire Wall of China.

[Sarabaite]

Thanks, Don, for that link to the "firewall." I found it interesting that wikipedia, The Onion, Suicide Girls, World of Warcraft . . . and Neopets? were all blocked. Admittedly, many of those had a low case of actual blockings. (i.e., with the Suicide Girls, approx. 3 out of 4 of the people who tried it got through.) Also on the list was that embarrassment, StormFront. Might I say that I ONLY know who they are because I was innocently researching European history as I was gearing up to teach the Legends of King Arthur, and I ended up on a page titled "History of the White Race." Uggh. Not my proudest moment. However, that page seemed to be about as threatening as the Suicide Girls, if the success rate is to be believed.
I tried www.askAninja.com to see if it would go through, and it didn't! Very funny site, if you get the chance to go by!

[Jae-Min]

I know of a dharma practitioner who is in Beijing for quite a while. She told me before she left that she planned to commemerate the Duchens at the Yong He Gong, but I don't see how she would manage that if she was considered 'just another tourist'. She also told me that the Yong He Gong is run by Mogolian monks but is that true?

[minnie]

listening to your tale of visiting in beijing makes me wonder. are they doing this in all lamas in china? are there any other lamas? that's like charging admission when going to worship in your local catholic church (although some would say the offering plate is "charging admission" lol). just thought after hearing what you thought of bill's book, i went to the library website and ordered about 4 of his books on tape. looking forward to it!

[Rinchen Gyatso]

It's my understanding that the monks at that temple in Beijing are not actually ordained, but are simply dressed that way for the tourists. I heard that from a friend who lived and worked in Beijing for several years.

As for the news, a lama I know here in the US was watching the news with some students in Arizona (I think). One of the Americans said he didn't like the news because it was so depressing, so the lama said he should watch the Chinese news because it's always good news. :)