Buddhist Meditation and Religious Traditional Music at Puning Temple. Chengde, China.

Puning Temple. Chengde, China.

Buddhist meditation and religious music are not precisely a scenic experience for themselves but after they are inside of a religious but tourist sight (Puning temple) then they become immediately a scenic experience for any visitor. In this case, that initially touristic experience develops in something extraordinary when the spectator-tourist feels that inherent life coming from those Buddhist monks praying or those traditional musicians playing their instruments, working as any other day they do.

They were doing what they usually do, without any theatrical or even artistic interest, but they had been put on a stage by the tourist officials; so, we could be pilgrims or spectators as we wanted, we’d share their religion or we’d watch an spectacle. This was a extraordinary dichotomy: they were performing and not performing for us because they were simply doing their own job.

First, I could have the experience of watching and listening a big group of Buddhist monks (mostly teenagers) praying and reciting mantras inside a shrine, playing instruments and blessing pilgrims; it was a visual experience yes, but it was specially for the ear and for the mind. I was invited to participate in their meditation, just seating there and listening; my experience first theatrical became spiritual and uniquely total. I didn’t recorded any video during my meditation, of course I didn’t need it.

Buddhist Monks praying at Puning Temple

Some steps up (this temple like any other temple in China is shaped like a hill), face to the Kuanyin of Thousands Arms Shrine, I found a group of traditional musicians working for the pilgrims who wanted to pray to the Goddess with a special musical ambiance.

Traditional instruments and traditional customs, musicians dressed for a theatrical performance. They were in the middle of that mass of pilgrims, playing their religious music, giving an introduction to the Kuanyin’s Shrine entrance.

Traditional Musicians at Puning Temple






Traditional Musicians. Puning Temple. Chengde, China.

This was a refreshing and lively visit after a day before without life, with those huge empty buildings and that wasted Qing style Beijing Opera theatre. I wasn’t anymore inside a museum I was inside of a lively open air theatre.

Chengde was being part of a new perception of my theatrical Chinese experience.

A Religious Spectacle at Puning Temple Theatre in Chengde

Continuing with my experiences as a spectator in Chengde, China, I must stop a little bit and share with all of you one spectacle I considered of poor quality but curious.

As a religious tourist sight, Puning Temple is surrounded by many attractions: an old style Qing Dynasty Street, Vegetarian Restaurants (this temple is Buddhist), the royal park with those imitations of important Chinese temples, and one theatre showing a special religious spectacle.

All around the Goddess Kuanyin and her many arms (there is a gigantic statue of her inside the temple) this spectacle shows many rituals and religious dances with a common link, the Chinese emperor who built Chengde as a Imperial Summer Palace centuries ago.

It is a singular production using religion and history, trivializing them, and becoming a simple entertainment.

As I've seen in many other productions in China, they used "play back", then absolutely nobody spoke in real time; their music was spectacular, using chorus and big orchestras, and of course in this case, the whole group of known mantras and sounds of Buddhist instruments.

It is a curiosity and I liked to share it also, you can explore a little bit of it in these two videos I could recorded.