Since I have mentioned Buddha twice as well as temples, I thought it best to show the main temple in Changzhou (常州), the Tianning Temple (天宁寺). The first solo trip into the city using the local bus system lead us to this place. Classes at the university still hadn’t begun so we had some free time to discover more found within the city of Changzhou. The first thing we learnt in entering into this temple was that the temple was an active temple, one in which people still came to honour their religious beliefs as Buddhists. We saw people lighting joss sticks and placing them before various icons and statues and engaging in moments of what appeared to be prayer. Of course, I did try to be respectful of people during these moments and not take their photos.
The next thing we learnt was that the temple was not a single building, but a series of buildings as you can see here in this photo on the right, a borrowed photo. Now that I see this photo, I intend on taking one like this next time I climb the Tianning Grand Pagoda.
I am including a photo I took of the top of the pagoda during the first visit to the site.
As you can see, the temple grounds are quite large with a fair number of buildings, many of which can be entered. A few of the buildings are used as residences for those who live within the temple and as private work spaces.
We made a number of trips to visit this temple over the period of two years in which we lived in Changzhou and never got tired of the place. The temple is found bordering a large park called Hong Mei Park, a park we “discovered on later trips of discovery.