The tourist part was obvious because of the ticket booth, the tourist busses at the entrance and the fact we met a Westerner here, his name was Flowr and he was from the Netherlands. He came to China as a solar engineer to work out the things on the ground in regards the factories that made solar panels. Randy and I talked with him before entering the temple grounds.
It was here there was the second part of the tourist attraction and the most blatant un-Buddhist practice...monks were working gift shops for the tourists. There were many of the the shops right before the large main hall. Suffice to say I felt a bit like Jesus at the Temple...it's one thing if people who are working the Temple to support the monks livelihood are doing it outside the Temple, but inside and by the monks themselves...my mind immediately went to merchant monks (contradictory term, monks are supposed to be non-attached to worldly stuff and live off charity).
Some areas of the Temple would remind me of it's rich history. The Pagoda, a few of the other small halls that most people weren't near...and for what it's worth it was pretty empty so there was time to enjoy the calm, and even teach Flowr a bit about Mahayana Buddhism since he asked. This might have been due to the fact that we were experiencing the last hour of the temple, as to the reason it was so empty.
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