Bitter Journey in Western Sichuan

We left Miyaluo Scenic Area in a very depressed mood. On the way, "Tashi" kept introducing Guanyin Temple to us in his Tibetan Mandarin. According to him, the Guanyin Bodhisattva in Guanyin Temple is the most efficacious. Going to Guanyin Temple to worship is a lifelong dream of many devout believers. If Tibetans cannot go to Lhasa once in their lives to worship, they must come to Guanyin Temple, so it is also called the second place. The Potala Palace receives more than 200,000 tourists and worshipers from Qinghai, Tibet, Gansu and overseas every year. With Tashi’s strong recommendation, our car sped towards Guanyin Temple. After arriving at Guanyin Temple Town, the car circled along the steep mountain road for a long time before arriving at Guanyin Temple in Guanyinqiao Town, Jinchuan County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

The Guanyin Temple with an altitude of 3685 meters is built on the mountain. It was built in 1850 and has a history of more than a thousand years. It has been passed down for 25 generations so far and is famous for worshiping the four-armed Guanyin Bodhisattva. In the world, it is said that the Four-Armed Guanyin was a naturally formed statue of Tiancheng Guanyin with four arms that was discovered and brought out from the ground by folk believers in the 7th century AD, and a temple was built to worship it. It is said that the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva worshiped in this temple, the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva enshrined in the Potala Palace and the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva in Wutai Mountain are originally three sisters of the same origin. In Tibetan, the four-armed Guanyin is called "Tuji Qinbo". Therefore, this Guanyin temple is also called "Tuji Qinbo Temple".

The weather was sunny in the morning, with white clouds floating in the blue sky. Standing on the viewing platform of Guanyin Temple, you can overlook the entire Guanyin Town, and you can see the endless mountains all around. The mountain opposite looks like an elephant. The elephant's body is made of white stones with a six-character Tibetan mantra, which is particularly spectacular in the bright sun.

We panted and slowly climbed up the high steps. On the east side of the steps, there were rows of white sutra pagodas. Under the white pagodas, there were piles of Mani stones depicting colorful scriptures. The temple hall is a two-story building with one floor and one bottom. Today, there are few tourists in Guanyin Temple. Lamas come in and out in twos and threes. There are more Tibetan elderly people who come to worship. Some are praying in the prayer corridor, and some are leisurely. Sitting at the door of the temple.

Tashi led us to buy incense and white hada from the small supermarket east of Guanyin Temple Square. We first went to the incense burner to light the incense, inserted the incense into the incense burner and knelt down to worship. Then take off your shoes, hats and gloves outside the inner door of the Guanyin Hall. Do not speak loudly when entering the hall, and mute the ringtone of your mobile phone. The golden statue of Guanyin is enshrined in the solemn main hall. The hat of the statue of Guanyin is made of gold, silver, coral, jade and other jewelry. There are hundreds of butter lamps in the main hall that stay lit day and night, and there is also a copper lamp that can hold a thousand kilograms of butter. There are lamas on duty at the entrance of the hall. The lamas look solemn. There are chanting voices in the hall. The low Sanskrit sounds add a mysterious color to the whole hall.

We learned how to Tashi, knelt on the mat in front of the Guanyin statue, offered khata to the Bodhisattva, kowtowed, then put our hands together and silently circled the Bodhisattva in a clockwise direction. Tashi said that he could make a wish, and if the wish came true, he would have to come back to fulfill the wish. At this time, the hall was filled with Buddhist incense and Sanskrit sounds, making people's hearts suddenly calm. May our wishes come true!

There is a prayer corridor on the east and west sides of the side door of the main hall. There are rows of huge purple-red prayer tubes in the prayer corridor. There is an endless stream of people coming to pray. The lamas in the temple were also holding Buddha beads and chanting scriptures, walking around and around. We also walked around the prayer wheel. The central part of the cement tiles on the ground were polished by the people who prayed.

After passing through the prayer corridor, there are statues of Padmasambhava and 103 Sakyamuni statues, as well as silver pagodas and scriptures on both sides of the main hall. The resplendent Lotus Hall is dedicated to Padmasambhava. It has three floors, and each floor is decorated with exquisite thangkas.

Tips: Jinchuan Guanyinqiao Town is a very mature business district with many accommodations and restaurants. From Guanyinqiao Town to Guanyin Temple, you can rent a car from the town. It would take more than two hours to hike, and it would be difficult at high altitude. There are currently no tickets for Guanyin Temple.