Tai Shan, located in the Shangdong province is considered China’s holiest mountain. Pilgrims have ascended the mountain for over 3000 years and it remains the most climbed mountain on earth. From its peaks, Confucius is supposed to have uttered the phrase “the world is small” and it here that Mao declared that the “East is Red.”
We start our climb by mid-afternoon (the morning is spent retracing our path to our hotel that we checked into as we manage to forget our hotels name – an intractable problem to have in China). As we begin the 7200 steps journey through deciduous trees and beautiful temples, we pass a group of septuagenarian women making their way up effortlessly. In a country of atheists, it is strange to see such devotion that could easily pass for religious zeal. I later learn that the worship of heaven as an omnipotent force is central to Chinese panentheism. This Chinese belief in Heaven predates Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism etc. Tai Shan was a place where imperial sacrifices to heaven were made.
As we climb, we pass rocks with ancient inscriptions and break many times for water. I can feel my legs burning and by the time I reach the top, I am drenched in sweat. We learn that pilgrims who are able to make it to the top will “live a hundred years.” As I dwell on the lofty possibility of living to a hundred, I am struck by a more immediate and real problem: blistering barnacles we have two hours to make the train to Beijing! It took us over six hours to climb to the top and so we have only one option: to run down like mad dervishes! We sprint down vertiginous steps and pass many confused and disapproving faces. Out of context, it looks like Arjun and I have made a sport out of the sacred. Imagine bike racing in Bodhgaya, boat racing in Varanasi or flying kites competitively in the Kaaba!
We finally reach the Midway Gate to Heaven (half way down the mountain) in less than 40 minutes. I am overcome by a wave of exhaustion and by the realization that, even if we continue sprinting down the holy mountain, we will miss our train.We see a small tour group waiting patiently for a bus but quickly learn that the last bus has already left the place. Our only option becomes a jeep that is parked on the street. We negotiate a price with the driver and as we are about to jump in, a small thuggish looking dude emerges from the darkness. He wants us to pay twice as much and will not let us get into the jeep. I mistake him for a member of the tour group, who wants to make a quick buck and so I take him aside and “sought him out.” Lets just say, my arm twisting and badgering is futile as I find out that this seemingly diminutive character is a self-ordained thug of the Midway Gate to Heaven! He takes a cut out of every transaction that takes place on the mountain. To make a long story short, we end up paying him a lot of money (he is infuriated by my chutzpah) and drive all the way down the mountain. We make it to our train in the nick of time.
As I leave Tai Shan, I feel that the whole experience is a parable for travel: You have to know where you come from and where home is before you begin (we spent three hours finding our hotel room before climbing the mountain), the journey can be physically and emotionally taxing, the rewards at the end are always great (we will live a hundred years now!), you will eventually come back to where you started, the way back can be fraught with physical or mental barriers but ultimately you are one (or 7200) steps closer to heaven!
No comments:
Post a Comment