Sunday, October 22, 2006

Buddhism



We went on a tour of the Chung Tai Chan Monastery, the largest Buddhist monstery in Asia (or maybe the world), near the city of Nantou. It is an interesting mix of the ornate and the modern. It is 44 stories high. We were allowed on only a few of the stories.

There are a lot of squares in Chinese architecture. The nun who conducted the tour said this was to remind us of the rules that we need to follow. So the construction with the cubic blocks is very much in sync with Buddhism.

The window in the center of the main tower is 30 meters high (that is 98 feet, 5 inches, I wish we were metric). It is made of of squares of glass about a foot square that are held together with plastic and supported by a flexible metal frame. This allows the window to flex 43.9 centimeters (17 inches) during typhoons and earthquakes. I would love to be there during a storm! I saw this kind of engineering at least one other place in Taipei, possibly Taipei 101.

One thing that I can't get out of my mind is the hall of 10,000 Buddhas. This has a pagoda in the center, and over 22,000 images of Buddhas which were a coppery gold color. This is so different from the Christian tradition, we don't have halls of 10,000 Jesus's! Not even in the most ornate Catholic church! After pondering this, I think I have finally figured out why: Because the nature of Christianity is (ideally) not on what laws you do or don't follow, how you worship, how much money you give to the church, but how Jesus changes your heart and mind. On the Protestant end, we can (and do) worship in gyms!

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