Practice Zen cultivation. Experiment with Chinese Buddhist meditation. Take a break.
Spend two days and one night in monk’s robes in an ancient temple in the middle of a bamboo forest. Eat meals with monks in old temple halls, do sutra chants, meditation and calligraphy scroll transcription.
Study monastery etiquette and make a personal connection with Chinese Buddhist culture.
DAY
MEET-UP. DEPART.
FUTUO TEMPLE BUDDHIST MONASTERY.DEPART.
hangzhou hotel tour PICK UP
Early morning, meet up with/be picked up by your guide in Hangzhou. Get acquainted. Depart for the forest temple.
FUTUO TEMPLE BUDDHIST MONASTERY
Arrive at Futuo Temple. Slip into Buddhist robes and find your sleeping quarters. Take a moment organize your space and settle in before lunch.
futuo "(Cauldron’s Rim)"temple
Originally built in 912AD, today the temple is more than 1000 years old.
The temple is set amongst resplendent scenery – mountains gather around in a surrounding embrace, risen like the rim of a cauldron, forming a central well in which the temple sits – hence the name “Cauldron’s Rim” or Futuo temple.
A procession of monolithic characters in Chinese history have made the journey to Futuo and committed their artistic mark to history – Northern Song Poet Wang Anshi, Romanticist prodigy Tang Bohu, The Lay Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, and National Minister Li Yuanhong included among them, all leaving behind a number of priceless calligraphic works.
WHERE IS FUTUO TEMPLE?
Anji County, Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
浙江省杭州市余杭区百丈镇釜托寺
LUNCH.
TEMPLE GROUNDS TOUR.
EAT BUDDHIST VEGETARIAN WITH buddhist MONKS
Your first temple meal. Eat a Buddhist vegetarian meal sitting side-by-side with monks in the temple dining hall.
AUTHENTIC TEMPLE VEGETARIAN - EAT WHAT A MONK EATS
walk with the head monk on a tour of the temple grounds
Meet the master monk in the afternoon, then walk with him on an in-depth tour of the temple grounds. Learn temple etiquette and some of the things that make this temple special - as well as some things about Chinese Buddhist practice.
Return to the temple hall for an evening meal.
master monk of futuo temple
THE TEMPLE GROUNDS - WHAT CAN YOU TYPICALLY FIND AT A BUDDHIST TEMPLE?
Dinner.
Zen buddhist exercises.
DINNER WITH THE FUTUO MONKS
Enjoy another meal of Buddhist alms. When dinner ends, Zen cultivation begins.
temple zen meditation & sutra transcription
Sit for quiet meditation under the master’s guidance. Afterwards, moving to transcribe the archaic characters of ancient Buddhist sutras using the calligraphy brush.
Experiment with these Eastern-evolved methods of soul searching. Find some inner peace.
guided zen meditation
Our travellers in meditation.
meditative temple sutra calligraphy transcription
Chinese calligraphic Buddhist sutra tracing.
temple sunrise.
MORNING SUTRAS.
BREAKFAST.
DAY
WAKE UP. BUDDHIST SUTRA CHANTING.
In step with the monks, rise at 5:30. Attend your morning lesson.
Chant sutras and surrender to the hum of Buddhist song and settle your soul.
SUTRA CHANTING IN BUDDHISM
Sutra chanting in the morning on day 2.
EAT A BUDDHIST BREAKFAST
Breakfast: eat a temple hall breakfast. Finish eating then rest and wander outside.
temple tower climb.
bamboo forest walk.
climb the tower at futuo temple
Absorb the atmosphere outside on the temple grounds, then head behind the temple hall to the tower. Climb through the levels inside to the lookout on the top floor. Look out over the mountains and forest.
the futuo monastery tower - what's inside, what's it for?
The tower of Futuo temple.
bamboo forest quiet wilderness walk
From the tower, we then wander into the endless sea of bamboo that surrounds the temple. Walk the quiet paths under soft, green-tinted light. With no loud colors, sights or sounds to stir your mind, relax.
about the forests & mountains surrounding futuo temple
The forests deep green bamboo sea that surrounds the temple.
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temple hall LUNCH.
return to hangzhou.
EAT ONE LAST MEAL WITH THE MONKS
Breakfast: eat a temple hall breakfast. Finish eating then rest and wander outside.
HANGZHOU HOTEL DROP-OFF
We will return you to Hangzhou. Be dropped off back at our meeting point or at your centrally-located Hangzhou hotel.
tour end