Sipsongpanna

The one thing I really wanted to do in Sipsongpanna was to visit the Dai Ethnic Garden. A collection of villages dating back as far as 1400 years ago, the site boasts a number of temples in the Dai style.

That morning, the manager’s wife arranged for some contact of hers to drive me around for the day, telling him, as we were leaving, that he should stop if I wanted to buy fruit or anything on the way. The driver, of course, took the injunction with utmost gravity and earnestly insisted – over my protests that it really wasn’t necessary – that he take me to a fruit market near the Dai Ethnic Garden. I quickly relented. Not wanting to disappoint the driver, I bought a whole bag of rambutans, which I would consume over the course of the next twenty-four hours.

The Dai Ethnic Garden was surprisingly peaceful, quite likely because we arrived relatively early in the morning. I figure most tourists arrive later, when the locals recreate their New Year’s celebrations – yes, they do this on a daily basis. I did not really want to wait for that, so I just visited the temples I wanted to see, passing by banana farms and wooden houses with orchids in hanging coconut shells. It was hot and humid, and the skies were just cloudy enough for mosquitoes to have the audacity to suck people’s blood in broad daylight.

Dai Ethnic Garden Entrance

Man Jiang Village Buddhist Temple entrance

Man Jiang Temple

Another building at Man Jiang Temple

A dragon at Man Jiang Temple

A statue of Sakyamuni at Man Jiang Temple

Flower bush

Fence ornament

A wilting tropical plant

Massive jackfruit

Man Song Man Village Temple

The interior of Man Song Man Temple

The central building at Man Song Man Temple

A waterfall at Man Song Man Temple

Elephant statues at Man Song Man Temple

Golden Stupa at Man Song Man Temple

Another shot of Man Song Man's Stupa

Golden elephant at the Dai Ethnic Garden

Man Zha Village Temple

Man Zha Village golden peacock

Golden elephant detail

Man Ting Village white tower

Banana plantation

Villagers watching a cockfight

A structure under reconstruction at the Dai Ethnic Garden

On the way back, my driver stopped to buy pineapples for some relations he was going to visit the next day. He was very apologetic about making the stop and bought me some pineapple to make up for it. I had forgotten how good fresh pineapples tasted.

Since it was still quite early in the day, I asked the driver whether we could make a detour to the Mengle Buddhist Temple. Not only was he very happy to; he also helped me get a discount at the gate.

The Mengle Buddhist Temple boasts of being the largest Theravada temple in China, which is admittedly not very difficult in a country where Theravada Buddhism is constricted to a few regions in the far south. From the information available, I cannot quite piece together the exact history of the entire compound. Some official websites claim the temple was originally built during the Ming dynasty, destroyed in 1848 during a(n unspecified) war, and rebuilt again in 2007. Other websites make it sound as though the temple was built from scratch and newly consecrated that year to consolidate Dai culture. I assume there must have been some temple on the site previously, but what stands there now is much bigger and more lavish: A giant standing golden Buddha and several big temples covered in golden decorations. The whole complex takes the shape of a meditating monk.

I ate lunch at the temple and drank some coconut milk (I will miss fresh tropical fruit when I get home). The driver took me back to the hotel, where I tried to tip him for taking a longer route and he steadfastly kept on refusing.

The central building of the Mengle Buddhist Temple

Matsya

Great golden Buddha

Another temple at Mengle

An ascending row of important Buddhist figures

The central temple from above

The long snake tails carry on for dozens of metres along the steps

Golden Buddha with Sipsongpanna in the background

Golden tower at the top of Mengle's hill

A monk giving a tour

A hallway

A holy rock with the great golden Buddha in the background

Later in the afternoon, I crossed a bridge above the Lancang (the upper half of the Mekong River) to visit the Great Golden Tower Temple (Dajintasi) on the other side of the river. As is the case with many other buildings in China, this temple was destroyed and rebuilt several times – last time during and after the Cultural Revolution – which means that its current iteration is giant and one can hardly tell what, if anything, is faithful to the original. The plaza by the riverbank is still in the process of being constructed, offering current visitors the hilarious sight of blow-up plastic palm trees lining the main path towards the temple.