HanShan Temple

West of the old town of Suzhou is the HanShan Temple.  This Buddhist temple sits just beside the Grand Canal.  The magical 307 bus will drop you off not far from the entrance, if you have the patience to ride that far across town.

It's a big tourist attraction.  But also,  the temple is apparently still an active place of worship.   You can see the orange-robed Buddhist monks coming and going.  They too have to dodge the taxis and the tour buses.  No divine dispensation for them.

The temple complex is not that large.  It consists of a few pavilions and there is a pagoda at the center.   Outside the temple walls there is the bell tower.  It's not a huge amount of territory.   But what it lacks in size it makes up for in gravitas (if I can use that word).  Many people come to the temple not just to gawk but also to light incense and prostrate themselves before the idols.

 This is a Buddhist temple, and the religion here has spread its roots across all of South-East Asia.  A visitor from India would probably feel at home.  

  There appear to be a number of deities represented here. Above is one.   You cannot see in this photo, but on the altar before this statue are stacks of coca-cola and pepsi cans.  Offerings to heaven, I suppose.

And if you look really, really closely... at the chest....yes, that's a swastika.  Swastikas abound on the statues and on the red ribbons that are tied to the trees as prayer offerings.  This old religious symbol has not been removed or hidden for its 20th century shame.  At least not here.

 The temple is one of Suzhou's great tourist attractions, but it has a different feeling to it.  Different to the gardens and museums and the canal streets. Hanshan Temple has a feeling of eternity.  Or at least a feeling of people striving for eternity.

 The star of the Hanshan temple is the bell.  It is hung in a three-story tower just outside the temple complex. The bell takes up two of those three stories.   It is huge.   It is also bronze and engraved with thousands of Chinese characters.  It tells a story, no doubt, but not to me. 

You can touch the bell and feel it amplify the natural vibrations in the air.  When it is rung, the sound is a low base note that is pure and clean and persistent for a couple of minutes.  After the audible base note fades, you can put your hand on the bell and feel the sub-sonic vibrations continue for minutes afterwards.

 So there you have it.   There is much more that could be said about the Hanshan temple, I suppose.   But I have neither the knowledge nor the stamina to say more tonight.