Famen Temple is a Buddhist temple in Shaanxi province of China. It is very famous and influential. In 1981, the only Buddhist finger bone relic in China was found at Famen. Recently, the monks of Famen Temple have announced that they will close their gates to visitors and worshipers to protest the local government that was building walls around the temple so they can charge people high priced tickets to visit the Famen Temple scenic area. Previously, the monks had tried to stop and destroy the walls that were being built.
The notice from the Famen Temple:
Esteemed many tourists and worshipers:
The Famen Temple Cultural Scenic Area Construction Company, having the strong support of relevant government departments, is forcefully building walls in front of the Famen Temple gates to create gates in which to sell extremely high priced tickets, even sealing the entrance and exit roads for the temple’s internal cars. This has seriously violated the State Council’s promulgated “Regulations on Religious Affairs”, infringing on Famen Temple and the entire world’s religious masses’ lawful rights and interests, and seriously harming all Buddhists’ religious feelings.
Famen Temple, in accordance with safeguarding the dignity of the country’s law, have decided that from 1:00pm today, Famen temple will close its gates and engage in lawful resistance/protest, and respectfully request that all worshipers and tourists give their understanding and support.
Pictures of Famen Temple and monks trying to destroy the walls from Tianya:
Pictures of Famen Temple from KDS:
Pictures of Famen Temple monks trying to destroy the walls from a Sina blog:
Comments from Sohu:
洁洁0:
Too black! Finally resistance! Good!
danmy:
I used to also believe it was the temple who wanted to collect [money], and only found out afterward it was the government Religious Authority and Tourism Authority that were collecting, shameless government.
月色流云:
I would never have thought that in this noisy world there is still true quiet, a commendation!
八宝山麓:
Dog biting dog only.
There is no such thing as friends forever, only benefits forever.
星际凤凰:
I support Famen Temple. As a valuable Buddhist treasure, all the world’s religious masses should be allowed to visit!
乖乖兔:
Shameless government.
吃醋老猫:
The government has become crazy about wanting money, collecting money on the highways, collecting money when entering cities (Tianjin), collecting money from wage earned, collecting money when going to school…now even a temple cannot survive, and the promotion of Buddhism has become a tool for the government to make money? I do not understand!
gzlsh69so:
Resolutely support!!! Government people are all human scum!!!
北方的狼jackie:
Famen Temple, well-done!
We must not let religion become a tool for making money, forcing all Buddhists and Daoists to pay tickets to meet Buddha!
No wonder so many people begin believing in Christianity and Islam, I have never heard of churches collecting tickets, hehe!
Temples are Buddhism’s churches!
猫猫岛主:
Famen Temple has always been the place I yearn for,
except I have never had the chance.
Now it seems like my interest/affinity was not wrong.
Comments from KDS:
春夏之交 chemcross:
This is Famen Temple’s notice for tourists. As for this government’s actions, it is no longer surprising. If they were not like this, they would not be our government. There are many temples who have no choice but to collect tickets, and I have become accustomed to Shaolin Temple crazily ripping off people, but Famen Temple resisting extremely high priced tickets, it is unusual to me.
布沙尼神父 A_VIKING:
Monks like these are worth a commendation!
欧阳灏骅 oyhh:
Although I believe in a different religion, I still admire these monks!
唵嘛呢叭咪 nimendoushihuairen:
Famen Temple is so poor!! And they still want to use their reputation to cheat money!!!
This is the monk’s door curtain, all worn and mended and still in being used…
魔羯 liword:
Hehe, actually Buddhism is okay.
At any rate, there are still some real/true people there.
Christianity is even more fake,
directly controlled by the Party.
飞扬的六翼 willtomo:
In the past I had the habit walking pass temples and not entering.
It seems I need to change for Famen Temple.
This year I will got to Famen Temple once.
不生不灭 kumara:
Finally one by one people will stand up. The ticket prices are too expensive throughout the country’s various large mountains [scenic areas]. In reality, they are all ways the local government and tourism authorities thought of to make money. Every year, the ticket prices get more and more expensive. These people should one by one in the next life be reincarnated as pigs and dogs. I support the Famen Temple.
joe joe_sh:
I think it was the Shaolin monks who once said on television that “oppresive government forces the people to rebel.”
Although Shaolin Temple was not conquered during the Qing Dynasty, they were still conquered by the current government.
郑良宇 ominaeyu2008:
Desecration of the Bhudda, something emperors long ago dared not to do do~~
…now desecrated by a bunch of materialists.
mahlio mahlio:
I truly am worried for these monks, who knows what treachery the cruel government will do them!
唧唧歪歪 dreamflying2000:
Sigh, this worl ddoes not have any honest/innocent places, I want to go back to Mars.
dsd
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FIRST TO POST!!! FTW, TAKE THAT KAI!
“harming all Buddhists’ religious feelings.” – hilarious
And this is news to me. I’ve been to a few temples in China, and I also thought it was the temple owners charing admission to make profit. Never realized it was the governmental authorities setting up admission fees. Can anyone comment more on this?
Second floor
I was hoping the monks would use kung fu to break it. Like Budda Palm or 大力金钢指.
These monks have iron balls. No kidding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3CwXEuO53s
Good for these guys! Local governments need a little perspective like this in their headlong rush for more tourism income. Hardly a place I’ve visited in China hasn’t had its appeal reduced by the pursuit of tourism money.
I agree. Have you been to the three pagodas in Dali, Yunnan province? They charged a higher admission than the Forbidden City! (That was 3 years ago, I can’t imagine what the price is now) It was hardly worth all that money.
Also, I recently went to Yangshuo. It’s not a temple or anything I know, but it’s still on the subject of things being ruined by tourism. It was like poor farmer disneyland there. Walking down a dirt road and every 5 minutes there’s a farmer with a cow or an ox or something saying “picture, money”? Everywhere you go down there, it’s all about paying lots of money to do anything.
I didn’t expect it to be wall to wall support from the Chinese netizens for monks protesting government actions. Good for them, it’s at least a start to some dialogue.
Tear down that wall, Mr. Local Gov’t Bureaucrat…
If the people of China do not support their government in cases like this they have indeed lost all sense of reality what is means to built a civilized world of benefit to all. It is time to give your head a shake.
Please explain.
The Monks won!
http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=2139221406930210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=China&s=News
Haha, capitalism with Chinese characteristics! :) The government almost has the concept figured out. Almost. “Capitalism is good… as long as all the money goes to us!” I have a great idea, haha. God, I am such an ass, but here it is. The monks should build an inner wall about 10-15 feet in. Then they set up there own collection fee, haha.
Albeit joking, you are very much precise. This is capitalism without restraint, aka Rule of Law.
I’d only wish if Deng and his colleagues had studied a little deeper into what has made developed nations what they are now. Rushing history is no good.
Hate to nitpick but it is “rule by law” not “rule of law.” The latter is a good thing, the former is not. Technically, it doesn’t have anything to do with capitalism either so the “aka” is incorrect also.
Not trying to bust your balls but this is kinda important to avoid confusion when the LACK of “rule of law” is cited as a solid criticism of China’s current government and political system.
The “aka” was refering to “restraint”, not “capitalism without restraint”, my bad for lousy wording, guess I am bored at work.
LOL! That would’ve been awesome and hilarious way to make a point, and the kind of story that should definitely be reported on chinaSMACK if anything like it should ever happen!
This is a monumental mockery to the spirit of Buddhism, I would join the fight if I were there, I hope Gautama appears and slaps these sinners into bottom of hell.
I’ve always thought temple admissions are set to recoup cost and pay for the monks’ living and temple maintenance.
This has exposed, local govts will use any means to raise revenue.
Milking the cash cows!
It annoys me that it seems whenever its something bad or corrupt you will have people saying things like, The world has no innocent people, The world is a bad place. When its something good you will hear, China has good people, China is great.
So let’s complain about big governement as the world collapses. We can trust the independents to take care of us!
Yet I don’t blame the monks for wanting everyone to have access…
Hmmmm Xinhua has a completely different version of the story: Good news: the temple is open again! tourism can continue, sorry for this inconvenience…
Just a short ‘misunderstanding’, Xinhua says: ‘Workers were building a wall to fence the park and they privately went beyond the planned wall location, and that led to misunderstanding between the developer and the temple management’
Thank you Xinhua for keeping the world so easy to understand for me
sorry forgot the link:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/24/content_11066464.htm
I think that none of you were in Florence. Admissions are payed in EVERY temple/church/monastery. I think there should be balance between need for temple maintenance and commercialization.
It’s interesting to compare the Buddhist sentiment here to one found in Christianity.
In the New Testament, when Jesus visits the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus made a whip and drove the money changers out of the temple and overturned their tables full of merchandise saying that it was meant to be a holy place, not a house of merchandise.
Yep – but then the established Church decided that actually money was a good thing, if it was dedicated to the service of God. Or at least to the service of the Church’s belly.
Of course you do. You derive power from hail Mary. People invent myths and rule over churches for power all the time. I respect Buddhists for asking people to seek personal enlightenment and being a scientific philosophy.
> Of course you do. You derive power from hail Mary.
Only Catholics and Orthodox say that prayer, and I don’t remember them “deriving power” from it. I could imagine someone saying they derive grace from it, but grace is nothing like “power” so I don’t know where you got that strange idea.
> I respect Buddhists for asking people to seek personal enlightenment and being a scientific philosophy.
Scientific? I guess it depends on the sect, doesn’t it? Because I remember those interesting folks who decided to mummify themselves (before it was outlawed) in order to become a Buddha upon death. I’m not sure how scientific that is, exactly.
And I remember meeting another Buddhist who was struggling with their faith because they thought that the world was properly divided in two: yin and yang, light and darkness, male and female, etc. But they couldn’t reconcile that with the fact that there’s a lot more matter than anti-matter in the universe. From the very beginning, things were unbalanced and that honestly troubled him.
So if you’re going to tell me that Buddhism is scientific, but Christianity is not, we’re not going to get anywhere we can both find areas where the other is ridiculously unscientific.
For the record, the branch of Christianity I belong to respects science, including evolution, and emphasizes the Golden Rule (“Do onto others as you would have them do unto you.”) rather than materialism. I myself am quite well educated in all the natural sciences, including but not limited to biology, geology, astronomy, chemistry (organic and inorganic) and physics (Newtonian, Relativistic & Quantum Mechanics). So you’re really, really barking up the wrong tree if you want to pursue that route. I’m no stranger to science, whether you want to talk about leptons, limestone, zinc fingers or thermite.
Please. Famen Temple isn’t some hidden refuge of Buddhist virtue; its fortunes have been intertwined with the government since 1987 when the relics were discovered under the pagoda. Ten years ago admission was 20RMB for the temple and 18RMB for the adjoining museum; no doubt higher now. All the buildings are new (including the pagoda) right down to the China Telecom phone booths. The road leading to the temple is a pedestrian mall of restaurants and shops.
The monks were probably pissed off that their own revenue stream was going to take a hit when the government decided the area around the temple was underutilized and all the associated revenue from a Buddhist Funland next door would look awfully good on the year-end reports.
That said, if you’re in the area, check out the museum. I’m not sure if the real treasures or copies are on display (priceless in the true sense of the word) but they are absolutely, jaw-droppingly exquisite.
Great job…continue the resistance. You have all the support from the people and China and the world. Government can’t just buit a wall and surround relics and sites (under the disguise of protecting the relics) and start collecting exhorbitant prices. The walls of all other such places should also be pulled down. These places are handled down to us and the rest of the world by our ancestors, no one has the right to deny the right of anyone visiting it. Keep it up.
bullshit. the monks are just upset that they’re not getting any kickbacks from the tourist park. increased prices mean that total tourist volume will drop, decreasing the revenues taken by the monastery.
cool, good thing my local ancient temple is free…now. it’s used to cost 15rmb to get in, but it’s free not. However, if you want to get into the temple hall as opposed to just walk around the courtyard, you’ll have to make a pretty hefty “donation”.
I bet they are just protesting because they want the entrance money themselves.
chinese people are all moneygrabbing scum
I believe China is the only country in the world where Buddhist monks are charged money for entering a Buddhist temple or monastery. It’s wrong on just so many levels. Let’s charge the CCParty members for entering their homes and offices. That could make it right!