Where is the ancient Tar Temple? Travel guide to the ancient Tar Temple

The ancient Kumbum Temple is located in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This is an ancient temple with a long history. It supports many Buddhas. Every year, a large number of believers come to worship Buddha and pray for blessings. You can come to pay your respects during holidays. , let me share with you the travel guide to the ancient Ta'er Temple. Where is the ancient Kumbum Monastery? Xining City, Qinghai Province

It was another sunny day. I woke up early in the morning and felt very serious, maybe because I was going to Kumbum Monastery today.

The Kumbum Monastery is located in Huangzhong County, 25 kilometers southwest of Xining City. It was built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. It is the activity center of Tibetan Buddhism in northwest China and has a long history. The central governments of all dynasties have particularly respected the religious status of Kumbum Monastery.

I don’t know much about Tibetan Buddhism, or I only know some common sense, which is far from the same level as Brother Chao’s knowledge reserve. Obviously, Brother Chao came here with a purpose today. .

After confirming the itinerary, we set off. The boss told us that there is a shuttle bus from Xinning Road Bus Station to Kumbum Monastery in Huangzhong County. After buying the tickets, we waited at the bus station. This station is almost all short-distance shuttle buses to nearby Xining, Huangzhong, Huangyuan, Ping'an, Menyuan, etc. The bus station is in disrepair, it looks a bit old, and the equipment is also old. It is relatively backward, there are not many seats, and many passengers are standing, blocking the passage. What is most worrying is that the security check facilities are extremely poor. I am even worried that if a riot breaks out, we will have no way to escape. Fortunately, August in Xining is still cool, there are many people, but it is still cool.

After waiting for nearly an hour, we finally got on the bus 15 minutes before driving. Although this bus was bound for Huangzhong County and only passed by Kumbum Monastery, looking around at the passengers on the bus, Basically, they are all foreign tourists going to Kumbum Monastery, and there are almost no locals in Xining. As soon as everyone got on the bus, they discussed and exchanged tourism information about Kumbum Monastery. Of course, some people at the station also knew this well and would never miss this good opportunity to promote their travel maps and tickets on the bus. , as if we will be deceived if we don’t believe them. After departure, the car became quiet again.

The scenery along the way was monotonous, far less magnificent than the Qinghai Lake yesterday. In less than an hour, we got off the highway. At an intersection, the driver shouted, Kumbum Monastery has arrived! So 90% of the people on the bus got off. Our long-term travel habits made us think longer. Others got off the bus and went straight to the ticket office of Kumbum Monastery, but we left with peace of mind after confirming the last bus back to Xining. Traveling with no time limit and no cost limit may be the most perfect, but obviously we can't achieve it without a fixed income, even though we have plenty of time.

When we arrived at the ticket office of Kumbum Monastery, there was already a queue in front of the window. There were about 20 people in each team, and the three of us chose to queue in two teams. Because student tickets can be purchased at Kumbum Monastery, we all took out our student ID cards. That's right, when we were students, our ID cards were our talismans. Don't be stingy while you can use them. It is worth mentioning that there was an incident after we bought the tickets. Perhaps because our student ID cards were too conspicuous, some people were looking at us and insisted on asking us to lend them our student ID cards. He said that the conductor did not even look at it. Yes, I have to say, he really got what he said and sold the student tickets to them again without even looking at it.

After wandering around all morning and passing through the ticket gate, we finally crossed the threshold of Kumbum Monastery.

Because the terrain of Kumbum Temple rises from the outside to the inside, we can’t see the layout of the buildings inside at the door. We can only see a large golden dome with shining golden light, as if it was a journey to the west. Remember the Great Leiyin Temple inside.

Since there is no map, in order to see more efficiently, we chose the simplest way to visit the university campus: go around in a circle counterclockwise and selectively intersperse according to the situation.

At the entrance is a very famous place that must be visited to check in and take pictures: eight white pagodas and prayer wheels. Many tourists gather here to take a photo with the White Pagoda and the prayer wheel. When you visit here, it doesn’t matter whether you see the other things. At least taking a photo here at least proves that you have been there, because if you don’t have this photo, you may not have visited. It will feel like you haven’t been here for two hours. On the other side of the prayer wheel, many tourists also walked through the prayer wheel one after another, praying devoutly like Tibetans. The biggest characteristic of the Han people is that they worship gods when they see them and kneel down when they see Buddha. Whenever they see someone sitting there, they throw a few coins in. No matter what kind of Buddha, ghost or god it is, as long as they don't embarrass me.

We decided to go up the stairs on the right side so that we could easily overlook the layout of the entire Kumbum Monastery and find out where we were. This road is rarely traveled and most tourists choose the main road. After climbing dozens of steps, we have indeed raised our sights a lot, and now for the first time we can truly see the entire Kumbum Temple, which is indeed magnificent. Since there are few people here and there is a large shady open space, the three of us decided to have lunch here. Since most of this trip is in places with constant traffic and underdeveloped commerce, we always have food on hand. During the picnic, we occasionally saw lamas in twos and threes carrying buckets to fetch water. Some were studying while looking forward, some were strolling leisurely, and some were no different from all of us. They used iPhones to surf the Internet. Although Kumbum Monastery It is also entering modernization with the development of the times, but I hope it can retain the last bit of innocence, stick to the last piece of pure land, and leave eternal faith for Tibetan Buddhism.

Moving forward, our goal is the "Big Golden Summit". Each small temple here is like various palaces, pavilions and pavilions in the Forbidden City. We shuttled between temples. There were many tourists, and many of the trails were one-way, so soon we "joined" with the large group and could no longer walk freely. After crossing the threshold, we heard the sound of the open space in front of us. Brother Chao quickly caught the signal that we were about to arrive at the lecture venue. Sure enough, after turning the corner, the open space was filled with lamas. Dozens of lamas sat on the ground, facing each other on two sides, leaving an aisle in the middle. The lama who lectured on the sutras was in this aisle, holding the The movements followed the scriptures in his mouth, completely ignoring the crowds of melon-eating people surrounding him. There were tourists one after another. Some even opened the curtains on the second floor of the temple to watch, and raised those they couldn't see high. Just snap a photo or record a video with your phone.

Sighing but incomprehensible. It wasn’t until a few years later that I understood this kind of piety that had persisted for decades. Although I didn’t understand what they had gone through to be able to devote themselves to a faith like this, I still saw them after all these years. More and more people are meeting me. I don’t understand faith, but I understand dreams. The so-called dreams are those things that make you actively willing to do things that are very motivational. Some people say that we have no empathy and cannot understand their piety.

Believe me, there is no such thing as empathy in the world. You will never know what the person involved has paid for this persistence.

The "Big Golden Dome" finally appeared in front of us. Its name is Dajinwa Palace.

The Dajin Tile Hall is located in the center of the temple. In Tibetan, it is called "Selton Qingmo", which means golden tile. Its construction area is 450 square meters. The Dajin Tile Hall was first built in 1560 AD. Later, in 1711 AD, 1,300 taels of gold and more than 10,000 taels of silver were used to change the roof into a golden dome, forming a three-story, double-eaves, Xieshan-style golden dome. Decorated with gilded cloud heads and dripping lotus petals. This temple is the treasure of the Kumbum Temple. While marveling at the difficulty and high cost of construction back then, hundreds of years later, when we stand at its feet, we still feel a sense of majesty.

The remaining scenery does not have many features. The only thing that impressed me the most was a large golden elephant. The elephant is a symbol of nobility in Buddhism. Legend has it that Sakyamuni was the reincarnation of the white elephant. Although the cost of building this golden elephant is huge, it can give people a sense of awe and belief, which is priceless.

After walking out of the main road, we basically completed a circle, which took two hours. Kumbum Temple is large in scale, has numerous cultural relics and pious monks. It is a rare treasure among Chinese temples. Thinking of the temples in other parts of China, most of them have corrupt Buddhist practices, are in chaos, and are rampant in fraud and deception. They have long become a tool for some people to make money, and the tranquility of Buddhist holy places has long since disappeared. And on the border of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in this Kumbum Monastery, we can truly feel the powerful power of religion. The so-called faith should be simple, beautiful, and the most mysterious power that surpasses anything. .

Tal Gu Temple, I hope you can protect this faith.