THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1961, '
A
PHOTO.
ΣΤΟ NEWS
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(The 3,065-ft trek up the mountain, is over. The weary figures huddle into groups. Dawn breaks. It is damp and cold. Their tired faces turn with appre-
hension. They have come to see the sun rise.
China Mail reporter PETER WILSON and photographer FRANK FISCHBECK found that-
You climb the
hill
to the top to see
Cautiously, and with slight relief, they attempt to descend,
to get the sun
(THAT NEVER APPEARS).
You'd think it was enough' to drive a monk up the wall.
A loudspeaker boomed out instructions as 300 people tucked into their supper of rice and vegetables. Portable transistor radios were pitch- ed high: the deep sexy tones of Eartha Kitt over here, a newscast about Prince Souvanna Phouma over there, and a background of Chinese folk music from somewhere else.
Then there was the clatter of. tin containers from the kitchen. themselves And the peuple joked loudly and kept up an excited babble.
This WAS a
Yes, it was just the sort of everyday cacophony that we sometimes wish we could sway for the relative silence of a monastic life.
Bot wait mt-nastery. The setting, in fact, was the courtyard of the Po Lin Bud- dhist monastery at Ngong Ping en Lantau Island, one evening this week.
normally
Duty
wakey-wakey call was sche- duled for three o'clock--which gave them precisely three hours sleep.
Those who thought of rež. ting to sleep early were sadly
"Well now it's supposed to be at its reddent and roundent but you have to be golek, the rising only lasts for a few seconds.
Atter half an hour a long
disappointed for up to mid- blast on a whistic up front alg- night a monk, in dark glasses nalled a stop for a rest.
I was already hot work. But and sitting cross-legged on a
the toll of clambering sn'at is the templo attle, perlodically
rohr
over
thumped a buge cocks on your hands and some- by thick mes knees was lessened by swinging a wooden pole, attached to two the gay spirits of the climbers. A chains from the ceiling. from loud shout up front would bring side to side.
a ripple of laughter right down Rather pitying those whose the line. bed spaces were un the attic
Trouble was Frank and
understand
fluor, we were grateful to accept could not the less strained atmosphere of jokes.
I Chinese
And the people disturbing the the monastery garden pavilion By the halfway stage Frank
and scented for our short sleep. Serene atinosphere of the monastery
Erounds were those hardy types who, at this time of the year, make
it their duty to clainber
up the nearby 3,085-11 peak in
Loudspeaker
had twice cracked his shin bone us a result of losing his grip and two worrying more about his cameras than himself, And
ursed a cut onltie.
The pretty young girl be- bind passed up.refreshing fruft dropa before we started the steepest and most tricky Gnal hall.
We awoke on time. Hardly the early hours of the morning that we, or anyone che, could to see the sun rise.
have versient, for shortly after Annually the monks prepare three, the Chinese voice crackled for the Invasion'. They fill up over the loudspeaker again, зheir stores with extra food, giving his instructions like a gel on the spare china and Solemn judge. chopsticks, and lay down It was noodles and les under plready on top of the peak. rubber-fuum mattress in every the scant light of ofl lamps be- "Do you think we'll make conceivable spot they can Bind, fore the 300 (100 stayed in bed, ip I asked the man in front. including the topic.
"Yes, I think we can," he
A faint chorus of cheering could be heard from those
inore sensibly with the intention Although It is against the of seeing the sun rise from their said with quiet confidence. principles of Buddhism to keep bedroom window) wenved their muney the monks are not sự way through the monastery ger- Konerous
as lo entertain their gens, past the Ngong Ping tea guests for nothing.
ness.
Dawn breaks
As hosts, they have to buy factory and out into the dark
On we plod. Over rocks, to the food, On this occasion They carried torches and the side of rocks grabbing on they charged $10 a bead. walking sticks, many had water to the thickest pieces of TUSS Four hundred early morning bottles, small packs and to get a secure grip away from sun worshippers turned up: 300 cameras, and some even looked the deep drop into the valley. of these were accommodated in equipped for war (save a gun, below.
the monastery grounds.
Late
of course).
Women, out of breath, wero Though the Chinese outnum assisted over the wet and slip- bered the Europeans (an Eng- pery slopes, Kshman and his wife, both The last few hundred feet teachers in Hongkong. and we took a long time to master but, 95 it meant a $3,000 collection twe made a total of four) there happily, wo all made it, with towards payment of the monks' was a good cross-section of the last one on the peak top by
hauschold 11.
For photographer Frank Tischbeck and 1 when we arrived late at night, tired afler
a four-hour across island trek
ages.
On the way
quarter post bix.
from Tal O, accommodation was I ranged from a happy-go- wild grass.
out of the question.
booked oul," sad the young middle invakt, with the Yul Brynner faced looks, raising his volee above the schoolgirls. lumispeaker, outside,
It was still dark. The worn- ou climbers shivering in tho cold and mist, sat huddled up In groups in the damp, thick,
The cake tins and water bof- checked as the transistor radion sent out the time signal plps. Dawn broke and
mist gathered. And there was 'n kind of lush over the moun- tain tóp' that you'd associato
"I'm sorry, but we are fully lucky grannle, and a man in tles eaine but ani watches were
50's to several sweet and nimble teenage The leaders of the cilmb left: Behind him sat the chier i a gliarler past three. An hour monk. An elderly man with a later, the last of the queue had moved off and the long climb, kind and friendly face.
to take two hours, was with the tranquility of the While men and women atrol ald
monastery 3,000-ft below: cd in and out of the room, under way. some to get more tea, koma lo
The stilineas was unbeliev Not being over-enthusiastic
abic. look at photographs of Buddhist Frank and I played safe by
Half an hour later the alim Hning the
korping in the last dozen, wall, and monks
returned ollees just to lean against the Admittedly the long curving bers descended and table and talk, the chief monks Due of 300 brightly-lit torches hot, weak-kneed and weary, to
good wash and breakfast. remained a allent black gure up the mountainside hunched in his chair.
He looked an anomaly.
..
was an
early morning eye-opener. But
While they itscussed the
were In the temple,
It made me wonder, as I groped climb over a bowl of rice, the Moro than once he put his over the slippery rocks in my monks hind on, his head as though moccasins, want on earth made having a two-hour preaching milking an unspoken protest a POTROIL keen on climbing lesson.
dgainet the surrounding noise 3,000-odd feet to see the sun No, we NEVER did find which had suddenly descended, rise.
out what that sun riso, lepka upon the, solitude of his life." But behind it all, there was a like from 3,080 it up.
Meanwhio, in their nuparato sonse of intrigue: wondering In
the climbing fact, bedrooms the other inunks had of what the scene really looked fender said: This is the beca In had since 10 o'clock like from up there at the break third year we've missed out. under their mosquito nets ("the of dawn. mosquitos can 'hip round here "Your Arat me up?" said Blessed mist, you know." this time of the year," someone the Chinese man-In froût.
But there is an internal sald), ready for an early rise for "Yes"
Instinct which will bring the prayers in the temple at Aivo JA. "Walt till you get, to the top 380 back again next year, in The morning.
and see that aus. It's a pleture Shortly before midnight, too, to marvel at. A big, round red seatch of Mr Sunshine and the “aun-chaters
NEED bod, ball coming tip from the hug with them $3,000 for the After all, they NEEDED steep zon."
monastery. note than the monks as tele "Why this time of the year?". Good luck!
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