At 3:30 a.m., when the mountain ridge outside their monastery is barely visible, Buddhist nuns and lay followers of the Pushou Temple go to morning class.
The nuns, who wear patchwork dresses, lead the procession to the prayer hall, followed by the disciples simply dressed in brown gowns. The long file moves in silence broken only by footsteps and the occasional cough.
Pushou Temple, nestled in Wutai mountain, houses the Institute of Buddhism. All of its Buddhist nuns are university or high school graduates who undergo a three-year trial period before they are accepted into the monastery.
One of them, 24-year-old Changming from northeast China, has been a bhiksuni nun for three years. She came to the temple hoping to improve herself with the teachings, but doesn't know yet if she will be admitted.
Monastery regulations require the nuns to lead a solitary life. Each day they rise at 3:00 a.m. and retire at 10:00 p.m. They have two meals, in the morning and at noon. Apart from an hour's rest at midday, their time is devoted to prayer and work.
The morning class consists of prayer recital in sanskrit, and ends with silent prayers for the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people.
At daybreak, they leave the prayer hall for the morning meal. Each Bhiksuni has an earthen bowl for rice, an enamel bowl for vegetables, a pair of chopsticks, a small wooden spoon, a small brush and a small yellow towel. The nuns on duty fill the bowls with rice and vegetables.
They can eat as much as they like of the morning meal of rice gruel, steamed bread and vegetable, but can't leave any food untouched. For Buddhist monks and nuns, food is a source of energy. There is no talking during meals.
Labor is an important part of the daily regimen. Every day, the nun trainees unload provisions from trucks and carry bricks used for construction projects at the monastery. Others clean equipment and utensils, polishing silver and brass to a high shine.
Pushou Temple was built brick by brick by its Buddhist students and lay followers. When it opened in 1991, the temple had only three hectares of land allocated by the government.
The Buddhism Institute is now internationally known. It has taught more than 2,000 Buddhist nuns in the country, as well as others from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and many countries in southeast Asia.
The Pushou Temple has attracted an endless stream of tourists since its founding. A young couple from Shanghai asked to be married in the temple with the superior nun presiding. They agreed not to invite their guests to a banquet so that no animals would be sacrificed for food.
When they're not in class, students can be found in the library or computer lab. The last class of the day ends at 9:00 p.m.
Changming recalls the words of the receptionist who welcomed her to the temple: "We nuns must return the good that our country, our parents, our teachers and our people have done to us. We are formed by our country. Thanks to this, we became nuns."
(Xinhua 09/28/2001)
