Viewing page 29 of 187

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

26

sitting in the gateway gambling.  We walked up
the winding path to the cave.  As we went up we
could see off towards the river the blue hills,
and on the hillside we passed through bits of [[strikethrough]]1/2[[/strikethrough]]
rockery and groves of trees of very satisfying
beauty.  The cave faces due south, and opens onto
a small tree-lined terrace.  The mouth has been
made imposing by a brick and stone arch.  Within
the entrance are some fine tablets, and inside
are rock-cut figures of the lohans, Kuan Yin, and
several saints and Buddhas.  These figures are really
cut out of the rock, are nearly life-size, and
are fairly good.  The cave is artificial and winds 
back into the rock to no very definite conclusion.
An old man leads one back, carrying a candle, for
which service a remuneration of several coppers is
in order.  Just at the side of the main Buddha
image is a large water jar, and in the bottom of
this numerous coins, probably of offerings.  Believeing
that Buddha would not mind we fished out
a silver double-dime that gleamed in the water,
and used it to pay the old man and the lady from
whom we bought a cake at the entrance.

When we got down again we had a bit of an
argument with our [[underlined]]ma-fu[[/underlined]] as to whether we would
go our way or his, and finally ended by going his
way.  This took us down a valley of rice paddies
to the bright orange gate of the Tiger Run Monastery.
Turning in at this gate, one of the most
attractive I have ever seen, we followed up a long
road lined with criptomerias and other trees, and
follwed for a space by a little brook, until we
came to the house at the main entrance to the monastery.
There, nestled down among great trees, was
this house, and beyond it a small pool and a bridge
As we looked up from the bridge we saw above us
more trees, and the bright orange wall of the
temple with a curved-roofed tower, and friendly
gate, and many gray roofs.  Other pavilions and
halls circle around on the hillside, and workmen
were busy building a new gate to one set of build
where a shrine had just been brightly repaired.
All of the buildings looked down on three pools of
various levels, and all around were the hills and
the forest.

Inside of the monastery we found halls and