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Sightseeing
in Yunnan
Kunming City --- "Four Seasons of Spring
City"
Kunming,
which is situated in central Yunnan and north of the Dianchi
Basin, is skirted on three sides by mountains, with one side
opening onto the Dianchi Lake. The city is nicknamed "City of
Spring" due to the fact that it is covered all the year round
with the rich verdure of trees and plants. Endowed with a pleasant
climate, the city's 15,000 square kilometres of land is adorned
with more than 400 kinds of flowers. Kunming
is world-famous for its abundance of camellias, orchids, azaleas
and Primula malacoides , which can be found in the Kunming
Botanical Garden, where 4,000 varieties of tropical and
subtropical plants grow profusely. Kunming is also a
renowned historical and cultural city in southwest China. In
ancient times it was an important gateway to the celebrated Silk
Road which conducted to Tibet, Sichuan, Myanmar and India.
The
city's highland scenery is alluring, its karst landform is
bewitching. Its people are known for their varied and exotic
habits and customs, and its land is pockmarked with historical
artifacts, places of cultural interest, and gardens landscaped
with a picturesque taste. Among the major scenic spots of Kunming
are the Dianchi Lake, the Cuihu Lake, the Village of Ethnic
Culture, the Jindian (Golden Temple) Park, the Western Mountain
Forest Reserve, the Stone Forest, the Jiuxiang Scenic Belt, the
Yuantong Mountain, the Grand View Pavilion, and the Qiongzhu
Temple.
I.
Stone Forest : ( A national grade scenic and tourist spot )
II.
Jindian ( Golden Temple ) Park
IV.
Western Mountains Forest Reserve
V.
Qiongzhu Si ( Bamboo Temple )
VI.
Dianchi
Lake & Daguan Park
Sightseeing
in Dali-- " Nanzhao Kingdom
"
There are many kinds of religions nearly all completed because of
the special location of Yunnan at the joint part with the
half-island of East-South Asia and on the plateau of Qinghai ¨C
Tibet and Yunnan-Guizhou. Except the Confucianism, Buddhism and
Taoism, they are Islamic, Christianity, Catholicism and Original
Religion. Among the sects are blended(»ìºÏ)
into each other, especially the art of Buddhism, it forms a
wonderful view of colorful temples. There are many temples,
Buddhist towers, grottos, Taoist Temples, Courts, the wall
paintings of Churches, the inscriptions on the tablets, and the
religious arts those mostly are distributed over the sightseeing
sites in Yunnan. The temples are often taken as the spiritual
symbolization of the Heaven, at the same time as the residence,
palace and ancestral temple of the common customs with heavy
feelings of religion. In the history, since the Tang and Song
Dynasties had paid more attention to the fusion of the
relationship between the human and the nature. To select the
locations of the temples it is usually based on the either the
advantages of easy transportation or the calling the believers
widely. So the most temples in Yunnan were built at the places of
beautiful environments with the green hills and clean waters,
covered with the heavy woods at the deep mountains. It is saying
those all-wonderful sites and the famous mountains all are
occupied by the religious people. They highly stress on the model
of the temples, inner decorations and the art of the idols. All
the constructions of the temples and their religious feasts are
the very important contents of the tourist culture. The
Confucianist theory, strictly speaking that it is not a really
religion, but traditionally there was the wording in the history
" Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism" the three in one,
the Confucianism was regarded as the religion. Especially through
the long term of social activity, the people sacrificed the holy
idols of the three sects in one temple. They called the
Confucianists as the Confucianism. The Confucius was the founder,
who took the temple as the place for meeting, paying respects to
himself and the transmitting the culture, the Four Books and the
Five Classics as the main theory, the religious creeds were used
for tools of saving the feudal society and were praised highly by
each kings in all Dynasties. They offered the Confucius himself as
the "Holy Forefather". In Qufu of Shangdong province
(the hometown of Confucius), the Confucius Residence occupied the
lands nearly 327 mu (a mu=666 square meters), there are totally
466 rooms in it, which is the one of the famous ancient
constructions in China. The famous "Confucianist Temple"
in Jiangshui of Yunnan was founded in Yuan Dynasty (1325), it was
rebuilt many times in following Dynasties as Ming and Qing, its
area is just a little bit of less smaller than it in Shangdong. It
has the areas of 114 mu with a lot of the buildings; the main
temple is about 13 meters high with the colorful decorations.
Except it there are many others distributed over all places in
Yunnan. The
Buddhism originated in India; the founder is Sakyamuni meaning the
Holy man of the Sakya nation. It is called Buddhism in China. It
was disseminated at the time of Han Dynasty and developed as the
main religion in China. It is considered that the Buddhism was
transmitted to Yunnan in Tang Dynasty. The routes were divided
into three, from Han nation of Tang Dynasty, Tibet and the south
Asia which were formed with many entities of the Buddhism and the
characteristics of local minorities .The one of sects was called
"Mijiao" transmitted form Han of Tang Dynasty, the
Buddhism (Lama religion) from Tibet in Ming and Qing Dynasties
came to Diqing Tibetan areas and the one from south-east Asia
disseminated to the areas of Dai Nation in Xishuanbanna and Dehong
.All the three sects have the different but luxuriant Buddhist
arts, like the wall paintings in the temples, stone idols in the
grottos and structures of different pagods. MAHAYANA
BUDDHISM Mahayana
Buddhism was introduced into regions inhabited by the Han people,
the largest ethnic group in China, about the first century. The
earliest temple, the Baima Temple (White Horse Temple), was built
in Luoyang during the reign of Emperor Ming Di of the Eastern Han
Dynasty in 68 AD with the help of two Indian monks. Buddhism
reached its peak of popularity during the Sui and Tang (581-907)
dynasties. Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes the existence of many
Buddhas. It focuses attention on Buddhas in heaven and on people
who will become Budddhas in the future. It believes that these
present and future Buddhas can save people through compassion and
grace. Today there are eight main sects of Mahayana Buddhism.
These are the Sanlun (Three Treaties) Sect; the Faxiang (Dharma
Characteristic) Sect also known as the Yoga Sect; the Tiantai
Sect; the Huayan (Flowery Splendor) Sect; the Jingtu (Pure Land)
Sect; the Chan(Zen) Sect; the Ritsugaku Sect; and the Esoteric
Sect. The doctrines of the various Mahayana sects played an
important part in the development of philosophical ideas in China.
Mahayana Buddhist influence is seen in the thousands of Chinese
classics. Many of these are of high literary value. The
Vimalakirti, Saddharma-pundarika-sutra (Lotus Sutra) and
Surangamasamadhi-sutra have always been special favorites of
scholars. Buddhism brought to Chinese literature new conceptions,
literary styles, and techniques of wording and phrasing. The first
Chinese woodblock printing was a series of pictures based on the
Tripitaka in Chinese. Buddhist paintings and sculptures have left
a rich source of material for the study of Chinese art and
history. Whether it is the murals of the Dunhuang caves or the
stone carvings of the Longmen, Yungang, and Dazu grottoes, the
works highlight a brilliant chapter in China's cultural history.
China's pagoda architecture and statue art are mostly the work of
Mahayana Buddhist designers. China's music, astronomy, medicine,
and gymnastics also reveal Mahayana Buddhist influences. As early
as the 2 nd century, Buddhist songs were being sung by the
Chinese. Yi Xing (673-727), a monk of the Tang Dynasty, was the
first to compute the length of the meridian. He complied a number
of books on astronomy and mathematics. In medicine, there were
more than ten prescription texts from India Buddhists translated
into Chinese and they were used in China during the Tang Dynasty.
Finally, in gymnastics, the monks of the Shaolin Temple developed
various exercise methods imported from India into special form of
wushu through the incorporation of Chinese martial arts
techniques. HINAYANA
BUDDHISM Hinayna
(also called Pali) Buddhism was introduced from Burma, about the 9
th century A .D., into regions inhabited by the Dai, Bulang,
Achang, and De' ang ethnic minorities in Yunnan Province. Today
its followers are mainly people from these ethnic minorities, as
well as part of the Bai, Jing (Ginzu), and Lahu people. In China
it is called Pali Buddhism because Pali is the language that was
spoke in the temples in ancient India. Hinayana Buddhism
emphasizes the importance of Buddha as a historical figure, the
virtues of monastic life, and the authority of the Tripitaka. The
Buddhism transmitted from Han nation The
temple is the public place for holding the religious activities;
the Buddhist scriptures, figures and monks are all here. The
Buddhist idols are all plated with the gold and formed as the
colorful decorations. The Chinese temples¡¯ style were effected
by those in India, at the earlier time they were mostly formed as
the type of veranda and court, later they were developing into the
freestyle which are the two types of temples with grottos and
towers. Those mostly effected the temples of Yunnan in central
China, but they are showing the very special characteristics of
local nationalities. They were constructed of the Buddhist hall,
temple, hostel and pagodas. The temples are used for the places of
sacrificing the Buddhist idols, the hall for religious ceremonies,
the hostel for the everyday living of the monks and the pagodas
for the place of the buried the ashes of monks after death.
Generally the firstly getting into the temple through "Shanmen"(the
gate of Buddhist temple), you will see the "Heng and Ha"
two generals (clay sculptures), then the "Daxiong
Baodian"(Daxiong Temple), Daxion meaning the respected call
to the grand Buddhism, there are the Buddhist idols sacrificed
here like the main idols of Sakyamuni and others. At the back of
the temple there are the pagodas. In Yunnan the temples and the
idols conserved completely, they are the "Huating
Temple", "Qiongzhu Temple" and "Yuantong
Temple" in Kunming, "Panlong Temple" in Jinling,
"Caoxi Temple" in Anning, "Dajue Temple" in
Luliang, "Zhushen Temple" in Bingchuan, "Guangyingtan
Temple" in Dali, and some other places of Yunnan. The
Buddhism transmitted from Tibet ¡¡It
is combined as the proverb of "Dacheng Mijiao" with
other local religious sects in Qinghai and Tibet like the "Mijiao"
form India, later it is saying as "Lama" religion, which
are believed by the Tibetan and Lishu nation in Yunnan along the
areas of joint with Tibet and Sichuan provinces. In the earlier
time of Qing Dynasty the Dalai and Banchang¡ªtwo living Buddha
were formed with a system of choosing living Buddha in Tibet. The
lama temple is consisted of "Zhachang" and "Lakang"
which are the main buildings in the temple and many Buddhist idols
sacrificed here. The famous temples are located at the places of
north-west part of Yunnan, like the "Guihua Temple" and
"Chenen Temple" in Zhongdian, "Dexin Temple"
in Dexin, "Fuguo Temple", "Yufeng Temple", and
"Wenfeng Temple" in Lijiang and other areas, except the
arts of the temples and idols, there are the wall paintings and
"Tangka"(a style of Tibetan paintings). LAMAISM Lamaism
is a form of Buddhism intermingled with indigenous Tibetan
religion known as Bon. Tibetan Buddhism slowly adopted some of the
Bon rites, while Bon eventually took on Buddhiat teachings and
disappeared. Lamaism mainly gained its Buddhist knowledge from Han
Mahayana Buddhist sources. an
Indian master of Esoteric Buddhism who was invited to preach
Buddhism during the latter half of the 8 th century. This sect is
also called the "Red Sect'' because the monks of this school
wear red hats. The Sakya Sect is also known as the "Striped
Sect ''because of the three stripes of red, white, and black that
are painted on the walls of all its monasteries. The
Kagyu Sect is also called the "White Sect'' because its monks
wore white robes in the past. The Bon Sect is also known as the
"Black Sect''. It grew directly as an overlay of Buddhism on
top of Bon tradition. THE
LIVING BUDDHA In
taking on some of the traditions of Bon, Lamaism created its own
system of leadership, that of rule by persons designated as Living
Buddhas. Such persons are believed to be the reincarnations of
deceased Living Buddhas. Thus, in Lamasim special persons are
literally born into Buddha hood, whereas in Han Buddhism,
followers move toward Nirvana only through good work and in Pali
Buddhism they can attain the same condition through devotion. The
system for designating Living Buddhas was formulated by the Kagyu
Sect more than one hundred years before the Yellow Sect came into
existence. It relies on a committee of monks who search for a soul
boy (one into whom the soul of a precious Living Buddha has
settled). The monks start this search one year after the death of
previous Living Buddha. They travel in different directions from
their temple to find all male children born at the time the former
Living Buddha died. When such soul boys are found (there may be
several), each is presented with a group of utensils, some of
which were possessions of the previous Living Buddha. If the child
takes an interest in one of the utensils owned by the previous
Living Buddha, the boy is assumed to be the possible
reincarnation. A second test is then administered to make sure.
This involves the ritual of asking advice from a protecting
spirit. If two or more potential soul boys pass these two tests,
lots are drawn from a gold urn to determine the correct identity.
The process of selection and control remains in the hands of a
select group of monks-the search committee. One of their members
acts as regent until the boy reaches an age when he can be
elevated in a grand ceremony to the position of Living Buddha,
usually sometime between the age of 12 and 18. The members of the
search committee remain as the Living Buddha' s assistants until
he is old enough to replace them. Should the new Living Buddha die
young, the same groups of monks become the committee to select the
next Living Buddha. The
Buddhism transmitted from the South direction( East-south Asia) ¡¡It
is also called "Xiaochen Buddhism" or "Nanchuan
Buddhism". Their religious creed stresses on the "Three
none"( impermanence, no bitter and no me). It advocates that
mukti (get rid of by himself) which is close to the Original
religion. It is distributed over at the areas inhabited by Dai,
Jinpo and Pumi nations. Especially the all of Dai believes in it
so much , nearly there are the temples in every villages. Some of
the temples are not only the place of sacrificed the Buddhist
idols, but the place for learning the culture and educational
classrooms. By the Dai customs, all young boys must leave home and
become the monks for a time and leave the order and resume secular
life when they grow up as the adults. The Buddhism is divided into
two big sects, "Baiba"(Flatland area) and "Baishun"(Mountain
area). Their temples usually are constructed of the temples and
towers, the design of the towers are much more paid attention to.
Mostly their types are similar to the Buddhist pagodas of Myanmar
, which are consisted of a main tall tower and many smaller towers
around. It considers that the Buddha Sakyamuni is only real God,
and never recognizes any others except the Sakyamuni. The main
temples in Yunnan are "Guangyunmian Temple" in Changyuan,
"Qianrufu Temple" and "Damenlongfu Temple" in
Jingu, "Mangefu Temple", "Manfeilong Tower" in
Jinhong, "Wuyun Temple" in Manshi and "Dadenhan
Temple" in Ruili and the others. Southern
Buddhism refers to Pali Buddhism introduced into Yunnan province
from Myanmar in the 7th century. At the beginning, there was no
Buddhist temple and its scriptures were spread orally. In the 11th
century, Buddhism faded due to warfare. After wars ceased,
Buddhism was reintroduced into Dai majority tribes from Thailand
and Myanmar. Pattra sutra written in Dai language started to
appear after the language was invented in 1277. When a Myanmar
princess was married to the 19th Yunnan magistrate in 1569, the
King of Myanmar sent a Buddhist mission to Yunnan, bringing with
them Buddhist scriptures and statues. Soon, temples were built up
and Dai people and a few other minorities converted to the Pali
Buddhism. Now
Southern Buddhism can be divided into four sects. Dai boys must
spend a monastery life when they reach school age. They will be
taught in monasteries and may drop out when they reach their
adulthood. The outstanding ones may stay for further studying and
become formal monks. The Southern Buddhists can be gradually
ranked and the one sits on the top of the pyramid is the religious
leader The
Five Moral Precepts (Pali) Precept:
Sikkhapada (discipline or good behavior) First
precept: not
to kill Second
precept:
not to steal Third
precept:
not to
have sexual misconduct Fourth
precept:
not to lie Fifth
precept:
not to drink
liquor or take drugs which leads to carelessness 1)
Panatipata veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
I
take the precept to give up killing. 2)
Adinnadana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. 3)
Kamesumicchacara veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. 4)
Musavada veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami. 5)
Surameraya majjapamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam
samadiyami Why
do you not kill ? What
is the good of giving up killing ? Why
do you not steal ? What
is the good of giving up stealing ? Why
do you not indulge in sexual misconduct ? What
is the good of giving up sexual misconduct ? Why
do you not lie ? What
is the good of giving up lying ? Why
do you not drink liquor or take drugs ? What
is the good of giving up drinking ? ¡¡Taoism
is born and brought up at its native soils, it started in Han
Dynasty and took the [Dao De Jing of Laozi (a very famous ancient
scholar as Confucian in Chinese history)] as their classics, and
the Laozi was respected as their God and called Taoism. The sect
we can see today is divided into two sects "Quianzhen"
and "Zhenyi". They usually adopt the ways of trying to
make the pills of immortality and cultivate vital energy. Etc. as
their main activity. The "Gong"(big temple) and "Guang"(small
temple) are taken as their place of religious activity. Their
construction mostly is looked as the storied buildings. The
Eight-Diagram and Tai Ji is their important marks which symbolize
the eight natural phenomenon like the sky, land, thunder, wind,
water, fire, mountain and marsh. The construction of Taoism
usually is consisted of three parts, the parvis, mid-courtyard and
view-rooms. Taoism has a big group of the Gods, like the Gods in
heaven, human ghosts, and the local gods of the land as well as
the many historical figures and the folklore, just like reading a
volume of Chinese social culture history when visiting the Taoist
temples. In Yunnan the main Taoist temples are "Shangqinge",
"Dragon Gate", "Golden Temple", and "Heilongtang"
in Kunming, "Zhong he Temple" in Dali, "Yuhuangge
Temple" in Baoshang, "Yuanlong ge Temple" in
Tenchong and other places in Yunnan. ¡¡The
Hui nationality in Yunnan almost believes in the Islam. Through a
long historical life and working, there is a very close
relationship between Islam and Hui nation on the folk customs and
the culture. The place for religious service, they call mosque,
the style of the temple construction is the type of Arab and the
scripture is the Koran. The feasts are same as the Arab, like
Lesser Bairam, Corban and so on. All the festivals are holding in
the mosques taken charge of the Akhun. The women are not allowed
to get into the mosque. When the time of religious service, the
people must take off the shoes and wash all hands and feet (Ghust).
They take much more attention on the food; the pork and wine are
prohibited. The women usually cover the faces and do not show
their hands and teeth .The earliest mosque in Kunming was called
"Nanchen mosque", "Namen mosque" in Dali and
the mosque in Jindong were built up in Yuan Dynasty and other
mosques distributed over all areas where the Hui nation inhabited. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
