Enter the Wu-Dang (36 Chambers)
Wudang Shan is a holy Taoist mountain famous for centuries as a religious retreat/fortress. It is more famous as the birthplace of the internal martial arts (like Tai Chi); it is parallel to Shaolin Mountain, which was the home of external, Buddhist martial arts. Thus, the priests of Wudang have become the kung-fu movie opponents of Shaolin monks; for this reason, a bunch of guys from Staten Island who watched too many kung fu movies named their rap group the Wu-Tang Clan.
Anyway, that background aside, I did not go to Wudang Shan on any kind of martial arts pilgramage. I didn't expect to see any martial arts; there are schools you can go to on the mountain to train, but that's not the kind of trip this is.
We went to the mountain because it's pretty hard to find any kind of living Taoism in China. There is Buddhism galore--and many of my favorite sites on this trip have been Buddhist--but very little Taoism. Wudang is a rare place that has intact 500 year old buildings. The mountain has also always been famous for its plant life.
Unfortunately, that plant life was rather obscured by piles of garbage and swarms of bored touts at every scenic lookout.
As an aside, it's seriously pretty sad that what will probably be the single most enduring memory that we have of China is the touts. They are not any more aggressive than in other poor countries, but they are everywhere. We can be on a mountain-side a mile from any road, and there are still people selling crap every hundred feet or so. And rather than stand quietly, every single one yells "HALLOO" and steps in your path. Every time. It's really passed our tolerance ever since we realized that Chinese people in general don't say hello as a greeting, but rather as a bizarre way to make fun of foreigners.
Aaanyway...the buildings were definitely worth visiting. One develops a fatigue of seeing yet another (usually reconstructed) 18-19th Century temple with polychrome statues. The generic Chinese temple is pretty cool at first, but they really are mostly very similar. The temples here, however do have some variation. Many of the buildings dated back to the Yuan Dynasty (Kublai Khan and sons) and were carved right into caves in the rock.
As for "living Taoism," it was there but what we saw didn't seem so lively. Taoism is pretty esoteric however, so it could just be there wasn't much to see on the surface. But I didn't get any feeling of religious depth there, just lots of pilgrims burning incense in front of idols and getting their fortunes told by priests. The older priests all had really cool beards though.
In answer to the many requests on the comments section last week, I believe that we did indeed find a shrine to Ol' Dirty Bastard. I couldn't read the label clearly, but the bad-ass looking statue flipping us the bird was obviously an homage to ODB. I promise that you'll agree when you see the picture.
Anyway, that background aside, I did not go to Wudang Shan on any kind of martial arts pilgramage. I didn't expect to see any martial arts; there are schools you can go to on the mountain to train, but that's not the kind of trip this is.
We went to the mountain because it's pretty hard to find any kind of living Taoism in China. There is Buddhism galore--and many of my favorite sites on this trip have been Buddhist--but very little Taoism. Wudang is a rare place that has intact 500 year old buildings. The mountain has also always been famous for its plant life.
Unfortunately, that plant life was rather obscured by piles of garbage and swarms of bored touts at every scenic lookout.
As an aside, it's seriously pretty sad that what will probably be the single most enduring memory that we have of China is the touts. They are not any more aggressive than in other poor countries, but they are everywhere. We can be on a mountain-side a mile from any road, and there are still people selling crap every hundred feet or so. And rather than stand quietly, every single one yells "HALLOO" and steps in your path. Every time. It's really passed our tolerance ever since we realized that Chinese people in general don't say hello as a greeting, but rather as a bizarre way to make fun of foreigners.
Aaanyway...the buildings were definitely worth visiting. One develops a fatigue of seeing yet another (usually reconstructed) 18-19th Century temple with polychrome statues. The generic Chinese temple is pretty cool at first, but they really are mostly very similar. The temples here, however do have some variation. Many of the buildings dated back to the Yuan Dynasty (Kublai Khan and sons) and were carved right into caves in the rock.
As for "living Taoism," it was there but what we saw didn't seem so lively. Taoism is pretty esoteric however, so it could just be there wasn't much to see on the surface. But I didn't get any feeling of religious depth there, just lots of pilgrims burning incense in front of idols and getting their fortunes told by priests. The older priests all had really cool beards though.
In answer to the many requests on the comments section last week, I believe that we did indeed find a shrine to Ol' Dirty Bastard. I couldn't read the label clearly, but the bad-ass looking statue flipping us the bird was obviously an homage to ODB. I promise that you'll agree when you see the picture.
1 Comments:
It is really an homage to my lack of coolness that it took me a loooong time to figure out the connection between people asking about ODB and Wu-Dang Shen (is that right?). But now I get it, and look forward to seeing the picture.
We are in fact dying to see all your pictures---tea party when you return.
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