Chinese Buddhism and Consumption (6/2)

Entrance gate to the Lama Temple

B U D D H I S M   I N   K O R E A   was one of my favorite parts of this study abroad experience. Buddhism in China, by comparison, seemed completely different. Today was our introduction to Chinese Buddhism's workings via the Lama Temple in northern Beijing.

The first thing I noticed as we approached the temple were the surrounding small shops and vendors that appeared to cater towards it. Many sold bundles of incense in various shapes and sizes, as well as foods and other items meant to be given as offerings. Shops and vendors were a very common site throughout Beijing-- free enterprise certainly flourished to the point that it was sometimes hard to get somewhere without being heckled with offers-- but to see people cashing in outside a spiritual site seemed strange to me.

Incense burners inside the Lama Temple

The main attraction inside the temple itself seemed to be the massive incense burners, pictured above. People would bring in their newly-purchased offerings, burn them, and in many cases leave thereafter. This gave the temple a more fleeting (and more fiery) character-- people were coming and going much more frequently than they had seemed to in Korea. People didn't seem to spend as much time in the main dharma hall, either, except to drop off more offerings of incense and other goods. I was startled to see how large a role consumption played in the brief glimpse I got of life in the temple.


Dr. Yi took us aside inside the temple and told us a bit of its history. It is dedicated to the Panchen Lama, essentially the second-in-command in Tibetan Buddhism (after the Dali Lama, of course). Dr. Yi briefly explained the split between Tibetan Buddhism, with which the Dali Lama is aligned, versus the Buddhism of Mainland China and the Panchen Lama, who was cast out from Tibet and is considered by many to be illegitimate, despite the support of the Chinese government. Dr. Yi explained further that the Chinese government has historically feared Buddhism because of the political tension it creates, as illustrated both by China's hostility towards Tibet and the abduction by China of the "legitimate" Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, at the age of 6. To be at a place that clearly meant a lot to many Chinese Buddhists but also embodied so much social and political tension was discomforting, to say the least.

Despite the tension, the temple still had a lot of magnificence to offer.

The temple's main hall

Worshiping in the main dharma hall (note the piles of offerings)

The "Five Hundred Arhat Hill," depicting many famous characters from Buddhism's history

A colossal (27m) sculpture of Maitreya Buddha, carved from a single sandalwood tree

W E   F O L L O W E D   O U R   temple visit with an afternoon of consumption of our own. Our first stop was Wangfujing, a famous pedestrian shopping center. I spent my time in an international bookstore, enjoying the way the store canonized Western literature (99% of it was pop literature I hadn't heard of, the other 1% was anthologies).

A sign in the Silk Street Market. It wasn't very effective.

Our next stop was the Silk Street Market which, like the Pearl Market the day before, offered overwhelming amounts of goods of all sorts, counterfeit and legit alike. Then, after lunch, we stopped by a massage parlor, where I befriended and talked with my masseuse about her home in Mongolia. I wanted to hear about her experiences as a Mongolian in China, but neither my Chinese nor her English were good enough to talk on such a level.

It was interesting to spend the afternoon consuming Chinese culture and services after being caught off guard by the consumption at the Lama Temple. By this point I was pretty done with this approach to "studying," and was ready to get back to a place where we could spend some time digging into things, rather than rushing from one thing to the next and getting only broad-stroked impressions of the sociopolitics of the places we visited.

Finally, it was back to our hotel, where I was lucky enough to be able to arrange a meeting with an old family friend in the little bit of free time we had that evening. It was incredible to find and spend time with someone I knew in the middle of such a massive and far away city. It was great to see and spend time with him.

I miss you, Uncle Lu