James Baquet

    jamesbaquet@gmail.com

    I TOOK a highway bus from Xiamen to Shantou, where I visited two major temples.

    The first was Lingshan Temple in Shantou’s Chaoyang District.

    The first gate faces northwest. This is a side gate, as the temple faces southwest, toward a pond. The first gate had a shiny Milefo (Laughing Buddha) and four shiny Heavenly Kings, leading me to believe it was the Heavenly Kings’ Hall; but the next gate, facing the pond, also had Heavenly Kings, and a Guanyin in place of the Milefo.

    Once past this confusing entry, the temple itself was quite pleasant. The main compound’s outlying areas were interesting. First was the side yard, on the nominal east side of the compound, which had — among several other buildings — the Dharma Hall usually found at the back of the main compound.

    Behind the main compound the land begins to slope up toward a mountain, presumably called Lingshan. Here was a small barrel-shaped pagoda bearing the remains of Chan Master Dadian Baotong (732-824). Following the corridors on either side of the pleasant garden, I noticed they were lined with steles and memorial plaques. At the top of the garden was a beautiful black-lacquered memorial hall for the same monk.

    As I was leaving the grounds, I turned around well past the lake and noticed a tall pagoda above the temple. Although of modern building-block and cast concrete construction, it was nonetheless impressive in its siting.

    Back down the hill, I caught the local bus that took me all the way in to central Shantou.