Jishan Temple Fair

Hubei
🎧  Listen to Introduction

The annual Jishan Temple Fair has been very lively every year since its inception. This traditional Buddhist blessing event held on the 19th day of the second lunar month, the birthday of Guanyin, has increasingly incorporated cultural elements and the fashion of the times, becoming a major brand of Jingchu folk cultural activities. In the early morning of March 19, when the reporter arrived at Jishan Temple in Jishan Town, Shayang County, the temple fair had already kicked off. Entering the temple, the layers of palaces and pavilions looked extraordinary in the fragrant mist. The grand Buddhist activities are a major attraction of the Jishan Temple Fair. People from dozens or even hundreds of miles around come to the temple to burn incense and worship Buddha, praying for peace. Looking around, there are crowds of people inside and outside the temple, and the Jishan Temple is tightly surrounded. The content of Buddhist activities is relatively rich. People can listen to monks explain Buddhist scriptures, participate in the opening of Buddhist instruments, or write down words of blessing to tie a peace knot. Some tourists also choose to toss coins to make wishes and ring bells to pray for blessings. While feeling the charm of folk culture, they look forward to the arrival of good omens. Jishan Temple was built in the Sui Dynasty, more than 1,400 years ago. During these long years, the temple has been up and down several times. Every temple and every scene here has its historical legends and rich stories. The five dragon ponds located in and around the temple are representatives of them. There is a folk legend of "Five Dragons Holding the Saint". When we came to Wulongtan, located in the east of the temple, many tourists have gathered here. It is said that the water in the pond here will not dry up for a long time and will not overflow for a long time in rain, which is a wonder. It is also because of the water of Wulongtan that the crops near Jishan are lush and fragrant, making it the famous "Longmi Hometown". Visiting the temple fair, every place you pass by is a lively scene, with delicious, fun, and beautiful things. Along the road in front of Jishan Temple, many local farmers or foreign vendors lined up stalls all the way. The stalls were crowded with people and business was booming. In addition to traditional prayer items, the dominant products were various flowers, fruit tree seedlings, rural handicrafts and various home-made local specialties. Because of its popularity, the temple fair brought together many activities such as folk art performances, farmer-benefiting information publicity, specialty trade exhibitions, labor recruitment, and Jingchu flavor food fairs, attracting guests from all directions. This year's Jishan Temple Fair continued the lively atmosphere of the past, and the number of people at the temple fair has exceeded 100,000. In this regard, the abbot of Jishan Temple, Shi Jingxin, told reporters that the temple fair itself not only relieves people's psychological worries and difficulties, but also drives local economic development, which can be regarded as a good deed. For the local government, promoting folk culture, displaying development achievements, and creating Jishan characteristics are the reasons why they strongly support the temple fair. Indeed, despite the increasing diversity of today's society, Chinese people still have an inseparable complex for folk culture. The Jishan Temple Fair allows people to get close to cultural factors that have been passed down for thousands of years, which contain the deepest emotions and cultural information in the hearts of the Chinese people.

Intangible culture related to the heritage

China tourist attractions related to the heritage