Temple of 1,000 Buddhas

My former student Xavier Li took the train here from Weihai, and we spent a day together while the others shopped and saw the sights. Xavier and I went to Jinan's Temple of 1000 Buddhas, an amazing collection of shrines and stone statues, set against the Jinan hillside. There's a pavilion at the pinnacle, we didn't get all the way to the top of the winding stone stairs.

It seemed fitting that we visit a house of worship, as this was Sunday. While I did not to kneel in front of any of the statues, nor burn incense, I was affected by the holy hush of the place and the presence of many worshippers.

I'm not sure there are 1000 statues of the Buddha, but there were many. This place used to be called the "Temple of 10,000 Buddhas," before many of the Buddhas were destroyed between 1966-1976 during China's cultural revolution www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0814235.html

The scars of this series of Maoist purges are very much with today's China.

Above: Xavier stands by a stone archway.

Below: Many gates art decorated with red lanterns. I stand below one of these.

Below: One of the many statues of Buddha