Xuanmiao Guan - Suzhou, China - April 1st, 2012

This entry was hard to write. I've never been at a place where I've felt such a mixture of emotions (except perhaps when I visited the Vatican). I think the best way to tackle it is how I first met the Temple.

At the gate there is a building that was part of the Temple complex but now serves as a high end place for people to buy gold (blessed by Taoist monks, yep). Outside the Temple gates (and within I would soon learn) are shops and more shops. Clothes, high end tea, figurines and even things with naked women on them that look like they came out of a trailer park. These shops and more surround the Temple and are spread throughout the Temple grounds.

Once we passed through the gate we were greeted by a swarm of shoppers who were visiting the different craftsmen and sellers that covered the grounds of the sides of the Temple. Wanting to get out of the noise and feeling of emptiness I made for the main building of the Temple which was separated by a small gate.

Once inside I was greeted by a throng of people who sat watching a Taoist service taking place. The music was peaceful, the chanting was order to the chaos outside. Inside the Temple three Golden Immortals rose up where offerings were placed. The monks were dressed in colorful robes and around was a guardian for each birth year on the Chinese Zodiac.

The people were mid-age (a few 20ish) but mostly older married couples. You could see that they were experiencing something in the ritual and peace that the main hall brought. Even as a tourist site, it hadn't completely gone to the dogs. It was still an active temple and for all the people there it meant something.

Of the things that stood out in the main hall, there was a one horned bull that was rubbed on the head and snout for luck, an immortal who was most likely Guan Yin of Buddhist lore who was in three corners of the Temple. There also was a bridge placed in the middle of the hall painted black and gold.

After we crossed through to the back we found a hall with tacky lights around a God or Immortal of War, the room was nearly empty, and then in the main hall the three Gods of Long life. We crossed through the hall and ended up back with the shops. The shops were impossible to get away from, except in the Temple rooms.

The last thing we saw were the God of Literature. The fact that one exists made me smile a bit inside. It's nice to know that something like that has been admired for thousands of years. It was outside this temple where in the shop that was selling Gods, porn on plates and stuff was also being sold.

This place made me feel peace and want to wretch. Peace because of the people there worshiping and the times I myself prayed and other wretch because of how close money as God was present...it was hard to tell where the good of religion and worship of money began as they overlapped in a messed up ball of humanity...