Memory Revisited. Since little, there was a tradition kept in my family every year, that was to go to the temple and pray to the buddha on the first day of lunar calendar. That day always started very early. Waking up by my mother around 6 o’clock in the morning and getting dressed in new clothes without having breakfast first, I needed to go out with her to the temple to wish for a good new year. To kneel and offer burning incense for the buddhas on the first day of new year is a tradition that Chinese people have kept for centuries.

Leaving home, it was dark and misty outside.I could hear myself exhaling hard. The way we marched on to the temple was a long, meandering uphill road. Upon arrival, a vast plateau was there overlooking the town. The temple was hidden behind bushes of bamboo, visitors won’t be able to see it at all while arriving at the top but needed to go down two flights of stairs before entering.

The temple was carved out of a rocky mountain and held more than 446 Buddhas inside. Expect for the giant stone Buddha sculptures, everything else like the entrance, the walls, the pathwaywere all friendly built comparing to human scale. Different buddhas had different responsibilities, some grant people luck, some grant good education, some grant fortune. But the most loving and prestigious one here was at the end of the temple.

She was giant and dignified, quietly sitting on her lotus podium, with one leg hanging in the air, another on the podium. Her eyelids draping down, looking to the mortals, with a secret smile upon her lips. Instructed by mother, I held three burning incenses as a set, kneeling in front of her, bowed for three times, whispered my wishes to her. My new year started like this, and sun was rising from behind the mountain.