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A letter from Tongbaigong Daoist temple
Since I have not gotten any response from you or anybody from your organization, I wonder whether my first letter of July 27, 2001 has been received. In any case I would like to further clarify the situation and our intention. In her almost two thousand years of history, our beloved Tong Bai Gong Taoist Temple (TBG), the home of Southern School Taoists since mid 1000, has seen many destruction, but nothing compares to the devastation of 1959. On that night when the newly built Tong Bai Reservoir began to take water, not only all the buildings of the TBG were engulfed, number of lives of Taoist monks had also perished into the merciless water. Forty two years has passed, that sad moment was mostly forgotten, and deliberately neglected from time to time. TBG was once a glorious temple, it measured one kilometer from its front entrance to the back; occupied thousands of Mu of land and forests. It had 108 satellite temples in the surrounding areas, and 20 of them were still standing by 1949. Since the flood, all but one of these satellite temples were destroyed or converted afterward to villages for the local peasants. Today, many of these villages still bear the names of the temples they once replaced. The only satellite temple survived the ordeal is where the TBG currently stands. No bigger than a large modern house, 3 or 4 aged monks, that was what all we had to go on with for the last four decades. Among the surviving monks was the most reverent, chief minister of TBG, Mr. Xie, Xi Chun. Holding on to the last walls of TBG, Rev. Xie firmly believed, someday, the temple would be resurrected on top of the ruins, although he never had the chance to make any improvement to the temple due to the social circumstances at the time. Rev. Xie passed away in 1984 in his 90’s and left the temple to the care of his favorite student, Rev. Ms. Ye, Gao Xin. It was extremely difficult to talk to people about the rebuilding of TBG, it was even harder to actually rebuild it. Even with all the difficulties, Rev. Ye had managed adding a new living quarter ( 1 building of 7 rooms) to the temple with the financial support from oversea Southern School followers. In late 1990’s Rev. Ye had once again attempted to construct a new building for worship, meters away from the back walls of current worship hall. However, the project was stopped by force due to local resistance over land dispute. Today one can still see the unfinished foundation, and the unused building stones scattered around. Rev. Ye had since passed away. While she was visiting me here in the United States, She left me with her unfulfilled dream, the dream of us all, the rebuilding of Tong Bai Gong Taoist Temple. In year 2000, the local government of the county of Tian Tai had passed resolution recognized me as the chief minister of TGB. It has hence passed resolutions in support of the rebuilding of TBG, and approved corresponding plans. One may say that we already got the official support of the local government, why should we now raise our voice ? Here is why. Even with the current support of the local government, the time and finance does not allow us to raise sufficient funds, acquire the suitable land around the reservoir, and construct a whole group of buildings. You can feel the urgency in the earth tremble caused by the explosions that were set off to clear roads for the Tongbai Pumped Power Plant Project. The project encompasses a vast areas of land, which includes the last acres of our 2 thousand year old temple. But the project takes into no consideration of our puny existence; will we be still left standing after the dust of the construction settles? Who will be the new land owners ? Will we have to go through the appeal process again from scratch in order to get back what are rightfully ours ? Will we be required to pay to get back what are rightfully ours as we have had to do in the recent case of Yu Jing Dong temple ? Too many uncertainties, too much risks, too short a time. The fate of a two thousand year old tradition is on the hearts of us all who care; the fate of a two thousand year old tradition is in the hands of many who do not or have not cared. Do I still have the right to remain silent ? As the late Rev. Xie had once said that the righteous Taoists love to help the people. The same spirit reigned before, it reigns now and it will also reign in the future. TBG has never stayed in the way of progress, the way of betterment of the local communities. It is our intention to recover amongst the ruins; it is also strong intention to see the advancement of lives of the people and communities next by. What had happened could be let go, but we could not let go the future of TBG! What I want and what all TBG followers want is just a future; is the right for TBG to stay, and the right for the home of Southern School to live on. What I want to see is an all win future for everyone ! What I want to see are the smiles on everyone’s face ! This is the motive and true reason for me to contact your group asking for help. Mr. Lu Xun, one of most respected Chinese writer once wrote ‘Chinese culture is deeply and completed rooted in Taoism’. Tong Bai Gong Taoist Temple and the Southern Taoist culture is not only the treasure of Tong Bai Gong followers and taoists alone. It is a culture treasure of all Chinese people and a treasure of the whole mankind. Since year 2000, we have began the process of getting help from all walks of society. We have planned to send letters to heads of all nations, to get what ever kind of help we can get, even it just amounts to a penny or simple reply. We have also planned to send letters to all well know businesses and organizations, and let them know the beauty of Taoism culture and our desperation. We will tell the stories of TBG to the world, to everyone who care to listen, and ask them to lend us their helping hands. I firmly believe with the help from all who cares, one day, Tong Bai Gong Taoist Temple will indeed be resurrected from its ruins. Coming to the end of this letter I plea to you once more: please help Tong Bai Gong Taoist Temple; please help stopping it been completely wiped out from the face of earth ! May Dao supports you, always !
Yours most sincerely,
To learn more about my temple please visit the
web page at url:
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中国道教南宗祖庭-浙江天台桐柏宫 道历四七零零年
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