Thursday, August 16, 2018
Luoyang
Viewing the Wonders of Buddhist China at the Longmen Grottoes and the White Horse Temple
We had another extraordinary day! Indeed each day n China was proving to be a revelation. This was partly because our itinerary included places of which we had never heard and about which no one had prepared us. Our source was Lonely lancet which had also recommended that we do not leave China without a visit to this city.
So how did we get there? As promised, the heavily discounted cab took us to Xian High-speed train station for our ride to Luoyang for 25 yuan each. We shared our cab with Wolfgang, a German, who was also at our hotel and recipient of compensation for the debacle of yesterday’s abbreviated tour.
Now that we knew the drill, we got the hang of how the trains worked and we soon found our way to the right waiting room, platform, train, car and seat. Having also benefited from our conversation with our companions on the train ride to Pingyao yesterday, Llew decided to try to get into conversation with out companions—two sweet youngish Chinese ladies who tried to help us by answering our question through the use of their phones. They gave us information about where our next hotel (named the New Jianlong Hotel) and told us where it was likely to be located. When we arrived at Luoyang where they also alighted, they used their Chinese to put us on to Lee Kai, a taxi driver, who then made a deal with us. For 300 yuan, he would drive us directly from Luoyang station to the first place on our agenda— Longmen Grottoes and Caves on the River Yi; and from there tour second site of interest, the White Horse Temple. At the end of the day, he would drive us back to our hotel in Luoyang. A good deal, we thought. And, as it turned out, he happened to be a great guy. Like the women in the train, he too used a Chinese-English Google Translate app on his phone that allowed us to speak into the phone in our native language. The app then translated whatever we had said into the other language so that the listener could comprehend it. In this manner, we communicated with a vast number of people in China—from hotel personnel to strangers on trains!
The Breathtaking Longmen Caves:
After driving for about 45 minutes, we arrived at the banks of the River Yi. Once we alighted from the cab, we had to buy our tickets and then walk for about a mile to get to the venue. The sun was burning hot and there was no shade anywhere. The weather was a true nightmare, but we soldiered on. Furthermore, the crowds dogged us here too: it seemed that wherever we had decided to go, the Chinese millions decided to follow!
At the start of the attraction, we discovered the the Longmen Caves is the name given to a series of shallow grottoes and deeper rock-cut cave Buddhist temples that were hand-cut through centuries and, when completed, used as a monastery. In fact, the site is still a living monastery and, therefore, sacred to Buddhists. The River Yi and the emerald hills behind it make for a picturesque setting. The grottoes are really a long stretch of granite rocks that rise high up to form a Stone Mountain. Early Buddhist devotion chose this site to create a monastery and temples that depict the Buddha and accompanying members of the Buddhist pantheon by carving stone. As an Indian, I am completely familiar with this method of expressing devotion as I have seen the same expertise similar at the Karla and Baja Caves in the hills of Lonavla outside Bombay en route to Poona, at Elephanta Caves off the Bombay island and at the Ellora Caves near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The Luoyang Caves were carved in the time of the Tang Dynasty between AD 672 and 675.
The achievement lies in the creation of scores of small grottos with small deities carved inside them. We soon noticed that many were defaced—a result of a desire to blaspheme organized religion that prevailed during the Cultural Revolution in China. The bigger sites consisted of actual cave that had the Buddha depicted inside with the traditional guardians that flank him. When in Japan, visiting so many Buddhist temples, we had learned that these figures are called ‘Gaizin’ and that they guard the deity on each side.
We literally went with the flow as what seemed like thousand as of people moved in the same direction, from one cave to the next. Up and down the wooden bladders that have been ingeniously erected along the cliff face in order to make the heights accessible. As we moved along, we took many pictures. And then, finally, we arrived at the most impressive and stupendous of the collection of caves: He Losana Buddha Statue Cave where a 17 meter high seated Buddha dominates a cave while flanked by a number of his disciples. It is simply gigantic and it is breathtaking—both literally and figuratively—as you climb a flight of about 6 floors of high rough-hewn stone steps to get us there in an almost vertical line. We had more than enough climbing for a lifetime after scaling the Great Wall and any more climbing was simply perceived by me as a royal pain. But taking deep breaths, I reached the top and when I did all I could say was “Mamma Mia” because the sight of the towering Buddha, carved with such accuracy of demure, simply took my breath away. After that climb, it was such a rewarding sight. The way the stairs have been constructed for modern-day tourists, none of the deities can be seen from down below. You actually have to scale the heights of the rock face to appreciate the panorama. There were traditional Chinese junks plying up and down the river and offering views of the caves from the water and I would gladly have seen the caves that way—but believe me, there is simply no substitute for actually scaling that daunting rock face and see the sculptures up close and personal.
After we saw all the caves that are open to the public, we had arrived at the bridge that leads across the river. We got over it on foot and arrived at to the other side. From there, because we were simply beat (and they were there!), we took a battery car for 10 yuan each to get back to the Visitors Center. The Longmen Caves really are one of the lesser-known wonders of China and we were so glad we saw them. What an unforgettable venue they turned out to be!
Lunch In a Luoyang Local Eatery:
Fairly starving and ready to eat a horse, we asked Lee Kai to take us somewhere for lunch and he led us to a traditional Chinese restaurant where we ate the famed Pingyao Beef for which the Shanxi region is famed. Were really ought to have eaten it in Pingyao, but since Baibing did the ordering, we did not have a choice. Still, we were in Shanxi where the beef is so reputed that the Empress Dowager traveling through the area was said to have extolled the virtues of the meat. And indeed its reputation is richly deserved. It was butter tender and cooked in a sesame-soya sauce—apart from the might have been the most delicious thing we ate in China. He also ordered three huge bowls of rice noodles in broth with vegetables which was also great but simply too much for us. We each managed to eat only half of each.
White Horse Temple:
After lunch, spur next port of call was the White Horse Temple—built originally in the first century AD, it is considered to be the oldest Buddhist temple-monastery in China. Restored in the 1500s, it is a building of awesome dimensions and deep cultural significance. Again, we had no idea what to expect. At the entrance stood a real white horse that gave rides to insisting children—a neat touch. The approach to the temple’s entrance was lined by shops selling all manner of souvenirs and toys. A fountains, a lotus garden, beautifully landscaped flower beds led us to the main entrance. And the temples is huge—one Hall led to the next in a vast temple complex that is surrounded by gardens.
What made this Buddhist temple-monastery remarkable is that we saw gigantic Buddhas and Buddhist deities in various guises—far larger than anything we have seen, even in Japan. The accompanying deities are richly and minutely painted. They tower around the firs Hall, each more massive and impressive than the next. Among the many Buddhist deities we saw were the Shakyamani Buddha (founder Gautama), the Maitreya Buddha (the stout laughing Buddha), the chief disciple bald Ananda, the future Buddha Alokateshvara and a bunch of other deities—each more decorative than the other. Th omelet contained terrific painted temples from floor to ceiling. It was a fabulous experience just to be there and to walk in the footsteps of these fables. The interior of each Hall was richly painted in vivid colors that depict Buddhist iconography. At the very end, after we had traversed all the Halls, we reached the international Buddhist temples—a Thai one, a Burmese one and an Indian one (which was, sadly, closed). It was unbelievable how much we walked through this property. These complexes—we walked for. miles and were quite wrung out by the end of it—are massive and can only be seen—really seen—on a whole day’s excursion. As for us, we were so tired that we could only flop down. Wherever we found the chance, we did!
Lee Kai. Met us at 4.00 pm outside the Temple as planned and drove us to Luoyang to our hotel. It is another lesser-known city with a very Modern side to it. Our hotel was really bizarre, catering strictly to the local Chinese people. There was absolutely nothing in English. Reception staff only spoke Chinese. They too used the Chinese-English Translation app on their phones to communicate with us. Again, once we cleared check-in formalities and made our way upstairs, we realized we had a very nice room. There was no English TV, but we coped. Together we watched ‘Vera’—a British TV show that I had downloaded on my I-Pad.
With the day drawing to a close, we ate Pocky for dinner. Some fruit was sent up for us but Llew said the plums were too sour. We had our showers, rested and then went to bed.
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