By: Asian History Carnival, Part III–The Grand Finale | Jottings from the Granite Studio

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:59:16 +0000

[...] has two other posts worth highlighting: “Qing China’s Modern Economy,” and “The Battle of Qufu,” Finally, C.W. Hayford’s “Five Things That Didn’t Happen (But Might Have)” is a [...]

By: Del3

Del3 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:30:32 +0000

In 2006 I went to Hangzhou and visited the Lingyin temple. My tour guide, a Han Chinese friend and I admired the stone carvings of scenes from Journey to the West at Feilai Feng near the laughing Buddha statue. He told me the Red Guard destroyed parts of the ancient carvings during the Cultural Revolution. He was ashamed of what they had done to an ancient cultural treasure. No monkey king remains on the stone wall near Lingyin.
I love Hangzhou, Lingyin temple, Broken Bridge of West Lake, Dragon well tea, the White Snake Legend. The Dalai Lama’s book The Art of Happiness is as important to me as Hangzhou. Today I am very sad for Tibet and China.
China does not understand that many westerners are as interested in China as they are in the Tibetan wisdom of the Dalai Lama. We see good things in both that we lack in our own society. We also see in our western society good things that are lacking in the east. In the US we have experienced racial divisions more severe than what happened in Tibet, yet we may elect the first African American to be president. Many westerners look forward to a successful Olympics in Beijing, many westerners who love China also love Tibet, we do not understand why modern Chinese want to disown their past. The revolution in 1949 that liberated China from a feudal slave society has gone too far and China has lost some things from the past that were good. In cutting out the cancer the surgeon has also cut the heart of the patient.
I cannot help but think of the damaged carvings of Lingyin and the story of the Chinese Buddhist Monk who traveled to India with the help of the Monkey King. Today in Tibet another part of China’s past is being destroyed. If the Dalai Lama and Tibet are no longer part of the spirit of China’s heritage why do you tolerate the Lama temple in Beijing? No one in China should care if you demolish the Lama temple and build a shopping mall. Yet you refrain from doing so. You say the Dalai Lama is a “wolf in a monks robe” yet you hold the Lama temple close to your heart in Beijing. Chinese people do not understand themselves why they hold on to the Lama temple. It takes a friend to see you and understand you in ways that you cannot yourself.
Many Chinese say they are atheists and don’t care about Buddhism. I suspect this is not totally true. Even now you sense it would be wrong to destroy the connection to your past that once loved the Lamas of Tibet as brothers. Someday you will realize that there is more to life than economics and jobs. You will not return to the devote Buddhism of your past, but you still need the wisdom of the Buddha and the Dalai Lama to help make sense of life in this modern world faced with so many difficult challenges that affect all of humanity. If you destroy the Tibetan culture and let the Dalai Lama die in exile then one day another Han Chinese will tell his American friend the story of how that happened and feel ashamed.

Comments on: Battle of Qufu

By: Asian History Carnival, Part III–The Grand Finale | Jottings from the Granite Studio

By: Del3