China -- Description and travel; China -- Social life and customs
Below Wuchow, on the right bank of the river, is a district that will
one day attract the big game sportsman. Here the tigers are so
plentiful and so dangerous that the inhabitants do not dare to leave
their homes after four or five o'clock in the afternoon. Farther down,
on the left bank, is one of the most important Buddhist monasteries in
China--Howlick--which accommodates about two hundred monks, and can
take in an equal number of guests, who at certain seasons retire to
the monastery for rest and reflection. It is situated about two miles
from the river at an elevation of fifteen hundred feet. Approached by
a steep pathway, at the entrance of which stand or sit two grey-robed
monks armed with spears so as to be able to repel bad characters, and
which as it approaches the monastery is formed into long flights of
steps, Howlick is built upon a terraced plateau in the midst of
primeval forest and close by a most picturesque gorge. The monastery
is the resort of a large number of pilgrims, and Buddhist services
take place daily in the temple, which, unlike most temples in China,
is perfectly clean and well appointed. When I visited it the service
was being intoned in strophe and antistrophe, the chanters at each
recurrent verse kneeling and touching the ground with their foreheads.
The only accompaniment was drums and gongs, the time being marked by
tapping a wooden drum of the Buddhist shape, but all was very subdued.
One monk played two or three gongs of different sizes, one being only
about six inches in diameter. The two long tables on which the books
of the readers were placed were loaded with cakes and fruit. The
fronts were hung with rich embroideries. Such a service is paid for by
the pilgrims, who receive the food placed upon the tables and
distribute it to their friends.
I had subsequently a long conversation with the abbot, who was most
kind and hospitable. He said the monks had their own ritual, and so
far as I could see Howlick is an independent community. In the
monastery were many shrines, at each of which was a regular sale of
sticks, beads, etc., in which a roaring trade was being done by the
monks. In the lower reception room was a number of women, who
purchased prayers written by a monk while they waited. For each prayer
they paid from sixty cents to a dollar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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