Ceiling zoo
(Golden Buddha in the Jade Buddha temple: Shanghai, China)
Whilst I do not have an image of the Jade Buddha after which this particular temple is named (photography is most certainly not allowed), I do have this one. I am careful about taking too many pictures in a temple, just as I am reluctant to do the same in a cathedral or indeed any place of worship. I was attempting to capture some of the painted ceiling above the Buddha himself. The light was extremely poor in the temple room and we couldn’t see any real detail in these squares until I managed to find them through my camera lens. Each panel appears to be a different painting of flowers or animals, a veritable zoo of flora and fauna.
Upstairs in an adjoining complex sat The Jade Buddha, a larger than lifesize man carved entirely from a pale, golden, cloudy jade; he was relaxed, serene and really rather beautiful. I had expected him to be somewhat smaller and completed with slightly less artistry. I was pleasantly proved incorrect in my assumptions, as per usual in Asia.
Shortly after we arrived in Beijing, we became what we have dubbed ‘tourist exhaustion’. We had seen more Buddhas in a week than was really reasonable and we were tiring of painted ceilings and mortised wooden buildings. I suppose one can have too much of too many good things.
– Today Rosie is drawing and travelling from Carlisle to Glasgow, Scotland –
