Day 18 & 19 - 五台山，山西

Travelled yesterday to Wu Tai Shan - Home of Manjusri Bodhisattva. Wu Tai is located in Shan Xi province, a very dry area but well known for its noodles and vinegar. There are about 300 varieties of noodles here and it is said that spagetti was found after Marco Polo travelled through Shan Xi and brought noodles back to Italy.

We headed early for 佛母洞 this morning. A very narrow cave opening which miraculously can allow anyone of any size to squeeze through. Its about 2500 steps up the mountain and once there, there is usually a one hour wait. But we were most fortunate that a local offered to send us up there for a small fee and when we got there, there was not a single soul except the resident monk there. He was extremely surprised that we made it up so early and kept asking us where we were from. Although some got stuck midway squeezing through the hole, we all made it in and out successfully.

We then proceeded on to the other temples around the area which would have been cancelled had there been a wait at 佛母洞. The Great White Pagoda is a place which originally housed a pagoda built by King Ashoka with one of the Buddha's Shariras enshrined within. The White Pagoda was built over the orginal one to protect it.

We later went to 縣通寺, the 2nd temple to be built in China in A.D 68. The 1st temple was 白馬寺. Amazingly, this temple was untouched during the cultural revoluntion and houses many tablets by Emperor Kang Xi and Qian Long. And I saw a really cool cat there! Check out the pic. One of its eye is blue and the other is yellow.

That completed our pilgrimage of the 4 holy mountains. 功德圓滿! Lolz. I guess we count ourselves extremely lucky for completing it all with extremely good weather, good health, and good company! Headed back to Shanxi city for the night and tomorrow we take the high speed railway to Beijing.