White Horse Temple and the Annual Luoyang Peony Show, China
The White Horse Temple (Baima Si) was built by the Han Dynasty in 68 AD when Buddhism started to spread. This temple is believed to be the first Buddhist temple built by the Government in China, and is regarded as the "originating court" and "cradle of Chinese Buddhism" by the Buddhist disciples. It is this that makes it an important Temple to visit. The story goes: A Tang dynasty monk went searching for Buddhist scriptures. He met two Indian monks in Afghanistan and returned to Luoyang with Buddhist scriptures and statues on the backs of two white horses. The temple was founded to house them and named after the horses. There are two stone horses by the entrance and tombs of the two monks inside the first courtyard. (Watch the video below...)
There are many pavilions. The Guest Hall, Hall of Prayer, Hall of Abstinence, living quarters of the monks, all reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), My thoughts? Other than the iris in bloom and an original ancient horse, I was again underwhelmed... However, it was peaceful in the early morning stillness with people lighting incense sticks and praying. It was just another beautiful temple to us non-Buddhists and worth seeing only for the reasons above. FYI: Andy strongly suggests not to buy bottled water at White Horse Temple. According to him, the locals fill used plastic water bottles with tap water and reseal them perfectly!
The clear blue skies here were a marked contrast to our views of Luoyang most mornings from our hotel room....View image...and, this image was taken on a clearer day!
The peony is China's traditional flower and the Luoyang Peony Flower Show at Wangcheng Park is held throughout April every year. ...View image... Thousands of tourists come to Luoyang to view the flowers and as long as we were here now, we went to see them. The peonies were a little disappointing because there were only scant bushes blooming at the end of the season. ...View image... That was fine since it wasn't the object of the trip to Luoyang but it has to be stupifying when the hundreds of peonies are in bloom. The gardens smelled heavenly and there were still enough peonies to enjoy.
What was most interesting and engrossing? The people spending the day in this park. Groups playing cards, singing and exercising, boats for rental on the lake...View image... and one section had an amusement park with circus entertainment, rides, and stalls selling everything. Funny, if there aren't enough natural peonies to view, they attach fake peonies to the bushes and, of course, they were selling bunches of artificial peonies at many stands.
These old-timers come every day to the park to sing about enjoying life, having good manners and happiness in your heart every day. They threw themselves into the song enthusiastically and certainly had the right idea...
..and then an abundance of very cute children...always dressed in the height of fashion with lots of ribbons and barrettes in their hair...
...the older version of children, teens....
...and, last but not least, the Peony Goddess.
