Chinese cultural rituals have come a long way since their years of formation. And today, cultural rituals renowned for chasing after topics to do with material wealth still stand, and is fiercely practiced by those who seek their own pot of gold without having to find a rainbow.
I was travelling in Hong Kong with family when I chanced upon this incident while visiting the Tian Tan Buddha, within vicinity of the Po Lin monastery. In front of me were fellow tourists crowded around three Holy statues, each of whom was supposed to symbolize a form of blessing (Although deep down I suspect that all three of them were "understood" by these tourists to be the Goddesses of Fortune), flinging coins in aims of reaching the statues' alms. I was indeed shocked. The alms were positioned at least a few feet above, also making it a challenge for coins to actually manage to reach its thrower's intended goal. There were some notable scratches to these statues courtesy of every failed attempt once made.
And another notable thing, or at least to eyes of bystanders like myself was the sign bearing:
"DO NOT THROW COINS"
And there was such a sign attached to the bottom of each statue. There were a desperate scrambling of hands picking up fallen coins within reach from behind the fence, and afterwards these hands would soon fling more coins across a time span of roughly ten minutes per head before like-minded bystanders hop aboard the bandwagon. Imagine the sort of scene you would expect at a games arcade where people would throw some hoops; except now a similar form of throwing is taking place on temple grounds, with coins instead.
My cousins and I stared nonchalantly for a moment. My elder cousin W.L. then pointed out another interesting scenario which saw a group of vibrant young ladies posing against the wall in a fun matter and camera ready to shoot. Then I took a 360 degree turn to take in the full blown touristy ambiance where there were a lot of people, selfie sticks and shouting going on atop a place which held spiritual significance. I felt as puzzled as the looks on Caucasian tourists who took more conservative measures while visiting the venue as opposed to fellow tourists despite us bearing the same heritage. We were the Asians exploiting this piece of sacred land with the Buddha image looking over us all.
But then again, while strolling the temple grounds with my Grandmother in tow- I also begin to question to what extent, the strength of spiritual inner-peace this place could really offer. I saw that before the the entrance of the Po Lin monastery were eateries and souvenir shops poised as tourist traps. Contributions of tourists went to maintaining the sacred place where scratched statues could be later replaced and where it will await more visitors to come and have coins flung at. Some visitors came to take cool pictures. Well, I did too.
It also reminded me of times when I visit churches and also encounter a similar sort of setting where I spot a rare few who would come for the sole purpose of perhaps seeking inner-spiritual peace. Maybe in a world many millenniums ago, where there existed fewer sorts of material wealth to chase after and people weren't so distracted by the likes of Snapchat and Facebook; it was an easier task focusing on the true designated ambiance as intended for these sacred places. Times must have been simpler too, no doubt. Simple enough for a round of rituals to convince the common minds alike, that their needs were being taken care of by God. People in my time need to see instantaneous results. So they would rather work jobs and reap their rewards after that. There are more atheists in this time and age, Hae. There are also people who use God as a reason to why they make choices. There are also the nicest people out there who respect God and don't quote Him as a reason to why they love.
I think simple minded people are the ones to end up finding true spiritual inner peace. Or wait...
They never searched so hard in the first place.
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