Please, No Photos
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2008
1
13
16
Trip End
Jan 03, 2009
Summer Palace, Beijing,
China
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Inside the Tower of Buddhist Incense, Guanyin, the bodhisattva of mercy, presides in her thousand-armed form. No photos are permitted. Instead, I take a photo with my eyes.
I take in her many arms, twelve in all, to show she is always protecting her people. Each set of hands is carved to show a different mudra, or hand signal. She bears twelve faces-three rows of four, with one complete Buddha on the top, to show she is all-seeing.
She is five meters high, cast in bronze and gilded in gold. From behind, she looks like a many legged scorpion. She stands on an open lotus flower. The sign says it bears 999 petals. At her bare feet is an altar set with a tripod cooking pot, two candle holders, two vases and one apple.
The lady next to me kneels on the cushions, presses her hands together and bows repeatedly.
Guanyin faces the lake through the open doors. Perhaps she is watching over the people walking on its frozen surface. Guanyin is the protector of those at sea; lakes might be part of her jurisdiction as well.
I stand for a long time. An older gentleman smiles gently. I feel peaceful, looking at the lake, the yellow tiled roofs of the halls below. I bask in the sun a while. The old man does, too. There's a feeling of companionable energy. It lingers in space, like incense.
The old man reminds me of my father. He wears the same kind of tweed cap, has the same kind, contented face, wrinkled with years of experience. The same lithe frame and spring in his step. Eventually he wanders away.
I continue my journey, descending down the hill to the willow trees. It occurs to me that you just can't take photos of some things.
If Guanyin's image cannot be caught in thousands of cameras, she retains her mystery.
