James Baquet

    jamesbaquet@gmail.com

    I HAD left Wutai Mountain and moved down to Taiyuan, from where I traveled by bus out to Jiaocheng in Luliang, Shanxi — pretty far off the beaten path, and around 50 kilometers from Taiyuan.

    Xuanzhong (something like Mysterious Center) Temple, built in 472, has the distinction of being the founding place of the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism, perhaps the most popular in all of China. Chan (Zen) requires serious discipline, but anyone can chant “Amitofo” — the Chinese version of the name of the Amitabha Buddha — with a pure heart and thus attain a place in Amitabha’s Western Pure Land upon passing.

    The temple itself is not so easy of access. From my bus, I took a taxi several miles out of town and up a canyon to the temple’s parking area. In the back of my mind I was already wondering: How would I get back?

    But the temple’s beauty soon took my mind off my worries. It is a combination of old and new halls and had some fine murals in its upper halls.

    To the west of the temple, a small hall sat on its own promontory. Locals told me it was Taoist, not Buddhist, dedicated to the god of the mountain.

    On another hill east of the temple was an old pagoda on another height, but unfortunately the pathway up to it was blocked.

    With no other options, I started walking the four kilometers back to the main road, where I hoped to catch a local bus to the bus station in town. As so often happens, a kind tourist couple stopped, picked me up and took me not just to the highway but the full 8 kilometers or so to the bus station. It was a good day.