Before we left the monks showed us a map of the Nanyang Vacations sacred mountain that they had drawn and copied; it”marked all the old monasteries so Nanyang Vacations we asked which ones still existed but the monks just shook their heads. In turn we pointed to each marker and they replied gone, gone’, right the way through except for a couple of temples near the top and the monastery on the summit.
The cause of the general disaster was the Cultural Revolution, when religion had been seen as superstitious nonsense, to be wiped off the face of China. The extent of the damage was something we would see for ourselves. The nuns assured us that even if we didn’t find our way to the top, the sacred mountain has plenty to offer: 47 hills, 13 peaks, 34 cliffs, 45 caves, and over 100 streams. This litany showed how they care about their mountain.
