Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts

Tuesday 25 January 2022

Socialist Realism and some Western Fantasies

In Praise of Bad Art

Let’s get the confession out of the way right at the start: I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.

This is not, for once, the precursor to an ill-informed rant about ‘modern art’, it is merely a statement of fact. I studied sciences at school and engineering at university but when I became a teacher I returned to mathematics, always my favourite school subject (and that, no doubt, proves to some that I am, at the very least, odd). I spent my last art lesson, aged 14, as I spent most cleaning brushes and sharpening pencils, I had learned long before that any ‘art’ I produced would be not just bad but embarrassing, so I produced none – and have continued to produce none for the next 58 years. I am not going to change now.

Socialist Realism

But that does not mean I do not appreciate other’s efforts. This post is an appreciation of one, odd, quirky artistic backwater that we have encountered in our travels. Socialist Realism is probably of more interest to students of politics and sociology than of art, but I know what I like – and I like it.

The Leaders

The 1917 Russian Revolution was a major convulsion. The past was over, everything, including art, had to begin again. Many within the artistic community were happy to be co-opted into the new future.

An enormous head of Lenin, Ulan Ude in the Russian far east

Stalin, like Hitler, had no time for decadent artforms, but the idea of Socialist Realism emerged slowly, the term being first used in 1932. In 1934 the four guidelines of Socialist realism were laid out at the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party.

Lynne and Uncle Joe, Stalin's birthplace museum, Gori, Georgia

Art must be:

1) Proletarian: art relevant to the workers and understandable to them.
2) Typical: scenes of everyday life of the people.
3) Realistic: in the representational sense.
4) Partisan: supportive of the aims of the State and the Party.

Waiting for the firing squad?
Stalin, Lenin, former Albanian leader Enver Hoxha (and some extras) stored in a rarely visited corner of Tirana castle

So how do the works above measure up to the guidelines?

An 8m high, 42 tonne head of Lenin erected in 1970 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth is easily understood by all workers: it says THE PARTY IS IN CHARGE literally (almost) in caps lock. What it means for it to be in situ 30 years after the end of the USSR is another question. The other statues said the same, only more quietly, but their new locations have changed the message. They now say: the party’s over.

All are undoubtedly realistic, Lenin very much so. Stalin looks like he was carved in frozen yoghurt and is now melting, but it is obviously him. The Albanian examples are not such good likenesses, though they have been bashed around and Enver Hoxha is hiding his face with his arm. The stone carving at his feet is actually a good likeness of him, despite the smashed nose – the least he deserved from an ungrateful nation with much to be ungrateful for.

Enver Hoxha with broken nose, Tirana Castle, Albania

That they are partisan is unquestionable, but Guideline 2...?

Peasant Wedding, Peter Breughal the Elder
(public domain)

Well, three out of four is not bad, but Peter Breughel the Elder also scored 3 out 4 - several times. The Peasant Wedding, for example, is proletarian and easily understood, is a scene of everyday life and is realistic. As for supporting the aims of the Party, Breughel died 300 years before 'The Party' was born so could neither support nor oppose. However, he depicts peasants/proletarians as human beings with our well-known virtues and vices, so, I think, too much realism for Socialist Realism.

Perhaps the rulers are not the most distinctive parts of Socialist Realism, I see little intrinsic difference between a statue of Lenin and one of Queen Victoria or Winston Churchill. So, lets have a look at the Proletarian struggle.

The Soldiers

But first, a folk hero. David of Sassoun is the hero of the Rebels of Sassoun an epic Armenian poem of unknown antiquity, first written down in 1873 after a millennium or so of oral transmission. The soviet authorities cautiously approved of national heroes; if they could not be linked to any modern political faction, they could be co-opted to the proletarian cause.

David of Sassoun, Yerevan, Armenia

A statue was erected outside Yerevan station in 1939 to celebrate the (conveniently invented) 1,000th anniversary of the poem. It was destroyed in 1941 when sculptor Yervand Kochar was accused of praising Adolf Hitler, but Kochar survived and kept his gypsum original. In 1959 a new casting was made to belatedly celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Russian revolution. It was in poor condition when visited in 2003.

And the guidelines? Proletarian? Yes, a folk tale is a story of the proletariat. Partisan? Yes, David of Sassoun was officially viewed as a proto-communist. Typical? You cannot have everything! Realistic? Look at those tree-trunk legs!

And here we encounter a problem that runs through all warriors in Socialist Realism. Proletarian soldiers must look impressive, like this chap on guard at Gjirokastër castle in Albania…

Soldier, Gjirokastër Castle, Albania

...or, better still, superhuman like this intimidating group of North Korean heroes. This is realism only for the deluded. The man firing the gun (his forearm like David of Sassoun’s leg) sensibly crouches behind the shield, but the lunatic with flag clearly has a death wish. And the man just behind? A fine physical specimen, maybe, and remarkable clean, as men involved in warfare seldom are, but he is the only North Korean male I have ever seen sporting a side-parting.

Heroic DPRK soldiers, Fatherland War Liberation Museum, Pyongyang

We saw many soldiers during our week in North Korea. They were small, proud men in cheap, poorly made uniforms one size too large. No one below the rank of colonel gets a uniform that fits, or perhaps no one below that rank eats well enough to fill the uniform they are given. None of them looked like any of the group above.

Workers, Peasants, Men, Women and Children, More Fighters, More Leaders


Long Live the Great socialist October Revolution , 31st Anniversary (1948)
City Museum, Tallinn, Estonia

The men above, and the peasants, children etc immediately above and below exemplify the problem of Socialist Realism. Scenes of everyday life (and warfare) must support the aims of the party. So, soldiers must be heroic, and workers must be happy and thriving, and owe that to the party, and know they owe it to the party.

Long live the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, 11th Anniversary
City Museum, Tallinn, Estonia

Somewhere in the corner, Breughal would have included a grumpy git, or somebody cheating in some way, but Socialist Realism cannot allow this, everybody must be cooperating happily. That you cannot please all the people all the time, is an immutable law of human nature and so Socialist Realism can never be realistic. The problem is not with socialism specifically, it is with mandating art to support the government.

When a leader joins his adoring people, realism is missed by an extra notch. Travellers arriving on Puhung metro station (one of the four stations on the Pyongyang metro open to foreigners) are greeted by no less than Kim Il Sung, the DPRK's Eternal Leader.

Kim Il Sung himself, welcomes us to Puhung station on the Pyongyang metro
Notice the miner's foot on the stairs, the DPRK is very keen on trompe l'oeil

Two Favourites

I will finish this section with my two favourites. The first is a mosaic on the façade of Tirana’s Museum of National History.

Albanian Museum of National History, Skanderbeg Square, Tirana

It displays the whole of Albanian history, starting with the Illyrians and Thracians on the left before moving seamlessly to the intellectuals of the 19th century Albanian Renaissance. On the right are the workers and peasants who saw off the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century - one woman giving a distrustful backward glance at the intellectuals. All are led into the glorious socialist future by a worker, a soldier and an inappropriately dressed young woman with a right forearm that would not disgrace a blacksmith. She would be terrifying even if she was not carrying a rifle. Such works need to be treasured as many have already disappeared, been painted over or dismantled as Albania deals with its new reality.

Mosaic, Albanian Museum of National History, Skanderbeg Square, Tirana

The second is a painting in the lobby of the May 6th Hotel, Sariwon, North Korea which expands the delusion to a whole new level of ‘Realism’. The conceit here is not just that North Korea is a paradise, but that leaders from across the world recognise this and come to admire and seek advice from the great Kim Il Sung himself.

Kim Il Sung meets the people of the world, May 6th Hotel Lobby, Sariwon, North Korea 

Capitalist Realism?

Hitler’s tastes in art were apparently similar to Stalin’s and the Nazis promoted Heroic Realism which has a studied arrogance that Socialist Realism lacks.

"Capitalist realism" has been used to describe the Pop Art of the 1950s and 1960s and the commodity art of the 1980s and 1990s, but as a self-knowing play on "socialist realism". Search for ‘Capitalist Realism Paintings’ on google images and it is difficult to see the theme running through the results, although artwork from the Jehovah’s Witnesses magazine The Watchtower, does come up a few times; it undoubtedly has the style and lack of self-awareness, of the finest Socialist Realism.

But can there a precise western counterpart of Socialist Realism - when you are living the dream, why pretend? Yes, of course, there can, and I have two examples, one American which I call Hollywood realism, the other British, Imperialist Realism, perhaps..

British Imperialist Realism

The neo-Baroque head office of Liverpool's Royal Insurance Company was completed in 1903. It is now the Aloft Hotel where we stayed last year. A remarkable stone frieze sits below one window. The soldier-like figures suggest the British Empire is out there comforting widows and their children, building railways across the wilderness and erecting churches to shine light into the world’s darkest places - and all these activities are protected by the Royal Insurance Company.

Frieze, Aloft Hotel, Liverpool

The British empire was, of course, an unalloyed force for good in the world, spreading the benefits of civilisation and Christianity; it was never about exploiting the wealth or the inhabitants of far-away countries. There were people who believed that then – there are some who believe it now, even some in positions of power and influence.

Hollywood Realism

​In 2013 we flew into North Korea from Beijing, but returned by overnight train. We lunched in Korea, reached the border in late afternoon and rolled across the Yalu River into the Chinese city of Dandong in early evening. North Korea is the only country we have ever left with a feeling of relief and we savoured the welcoming bright lights, bustle and (yes) freedom of China.

We dined on the train after it left Dandong. In Korea food (for us) was plentiful if not particularly interesting and our Chinese dinner was like eating in full colour after our monochrome Korean lunch. But the Korean’s brew good beer, and the only beer available with with our dinner was Pabst, a brew which contributed fully to the USA’s former reputation as a beer drinker’s desert. More interesting than the beer was the artwork on the cans, a set of half a dozen, rather similar pictures, one of them reproduced below.

Pabst beer can - Heroic American Soldier, smiling, friendly and armed to the teeth
A can with bad taste inside and out?

The copyright of the above picture belongs to Interbrand and I have borrowed the artwork from their website. They inform me these special edition cans were made only for the Chinese market. I make no further comment.

Why I like Socialist Realism

I started by saying I liked Socialist Realism, I ought now to explain why.

I am not that keen on the leaders, but I love the cheerful pictures of happy workers, peasants and soldiers. But only a fool takes them at face value, behind every silver lining there is a cloud, a very obvious cloud in the case of the death-defying, North Korean, machine gunners.

Socialist Realism is, of course, fantasy, but it was conceived as realism, the irony in the name is unintentional. Many people are involved in the production of public art. A top-level decision is made to create, say, a mosaic, artists work on designs, a committee will choose the winner, workers will make the pieces and put them in place. I suspect somebody among them will honestly believe in what they are doing, though most will just get on with their jobs. But where is the belief? At the top? Among the workers? Surely not among the artists, or is it?

I love the ambivalence and ambiguity, though I admit they are easier to enjoy when they are safely in the past; some of the North Korean examples – and the American beer can – are more worrying.

…and finally…

The Korean Worker’s Party Monument in Pyongyang is a typical piece of DPRK bombast…

Korean Workers' Party Monument, Pyongyang

…but inside the circle of concrete blocks, just above head height, is a frieze, a relief of women, soldiers, children, aviators and more whose task is, apparently, to outstare the future.

Nobly attempting to outstare the future, Korean Worker's Party Monument, Pyongyang

I cannot believe there was not a knowing hand in here somewhere.


Thursday 10 December 2020

Mahayana: Buddhist Temples, Monasteries and Buddha Images Part 2

7 Temples, 6 Pagodas, 1 Dagoba and a Turtle (Roughly)

Mahayana

Attempting to explain the differences between Mahayana and Theravada is beyond my level of understanding of Buddhism, and not helped by both being ‘broad churches’. I will confine myself to a few basic points and hope not make too many howlers.

Distribution of the Different Buddhist traditions
This is a simplified map by Javierfv1212
To see his more complex map, click here

Mahayana came from India before Buddhism was abandoned in the land of its birth. It accepts the main scriptures and teachings of early Buddhism, and adds new doctrines and texts, particularly the Mahayana Sutras, writings from between 100 BCE and 100 CE preserved in Chinese, Tibetan or Sanskrit manuscripts. Mahayana also consorted with the various folk religions it encountered on its eastward journey.

There is a heavenly hierarchy in Mahayana. Arhats are those far advanced along the path of enlightenment who have escaped the cycle of death and rebirth but lack the altruism to advance further. Bodhisattvas, however, are struggling to become fully awakened Buddhas. There were Buddhas before Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment and Maitreya, the ‘Future Buddha’ will come after him.

Mahayana Buddha images often come as a triad, the Bodhisattva Maitreya (the Future Buddha), the Buddha, and Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (The Compassion Buddha).

A monastic tradition exists, but is less important than in other forms of Buddhism.

China

There are roughly 244m Buddhists in China, almost half the world’s total and most follow the Mahayana tradition. Tibetans have their own Vajrayana tradition, sometimes regarded as a branch of Mahayana.

Buddhism arrived in China during the latter part of the Han dynasty around 150 CE. Travelling teachers brought writings from India that were translated and formed the basis of local Buddhist thought. Periodically a feeling would arise that modern practices were drifting from earlier teaching, so someone set off to fetch some more written wisdom

Yuan Zhao in Suzhou

One of the earliest know teachers was Yuan Zhao, who may have been Chinese or may have come from India and been given a Chinese name. He brought Buddhism to Suzhou, near Shanghai in eastern China and his statue looks Chinese, but as he lived in the 2nd or 3rd century the likeness may not be exact – or even approximate.

Lynne and Yuan Zhao in Suzhou

He sits facing Ruiguang Ta (Pagoda of Auspicious Light). Built to house his teachings around 250 CE by the local king, it was rebuilt in the 10th century and again in the 12th and restored in 1879. By 1978 it was a ruin but has since been restored yet again – or maybe completely rebuilt, the Chinese are unfazed by distinctions between restoration, rebuilding and outright fakery.

Ruiguang Pagoda, Suzhou

See Suzhou (3), The Lingering Garden and City Gate: Part 5 of South East China (2016)

Kumarajiva and Baime Ta

Locations mentioned in the Kumarajiva story

Born in Kucha in 344 the son of a Kashmiri priest and the King’s sister, Kumarajiva studied in Kucha and then Kashmir. Back home, he became the royal priest and a renowned Buddhist teacher.

The ‘Later Qin’ Emperor in Chang’an (now Xi’an) wanted Kumarajiva to come to what was then the world’s largest city. After various vicissitudes, including time spent imprisoned by a war lord, he arrived about 400.

His life is well documented, but it is unclear who he was fleeing in 384 when his white horse dropped dead in the Dunhuang Oasis. As the horse turned out to be a disguised Dragon God rather than merely a white horse, it felt reasonable to build a Dagoba over his tomb.

Baima Ta, the White Horse Dagoba, seemed in fine repair considering its antiquity. Only as I left did I spot the plaque bearing the (English) words: 'the White Horse Dagoba, rebuilt by Dunhuang City government in 1992’. I felt cheated, but then I also doubt the horse was really a dragon god. Kumarajiva was among the greatest intellectuals of his age - sad then that his hokum is his major memorial.

Baima Ta - The White Horse Dagoba - Dunhuang

Kumarajiva’s finest achievement was the translations of a vast number of Sanskrit documents and the development of language for expressing Buddhist concepts in Chinese. Previous translators had made do with adopting words for similar Daoist or Confucian ideas. For all his efforts it can still be difficult to tell Daoist from Buddhist temples.

See Dunhuang, Dunes in the Gobi (2008)

Xuanzang and the Great Wild Goose Pagoda

Xuanzang, an illustration in Journey to the West
In Public Domain

Born in Henan Province in 602, Xuanzang became a novice monk at the age of 13. Unrest forced a move to Chengdu, where he became a full monk in 622 and then to Chang’an, capital of the peaceful and orderly Tang Dynasty. Concerned about misinterpreting the incomplete Buddhist texts available he decided to journey to India.

He left China in 629 journeying through what is now Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He travelled throughout India and Nepal before returning to China to much acclaim in 645. The Great Wild Goose Pagoda was built in Chang’an to house the writings and Buddha images he brought back from his 17-year sojourn.

The (much restored) Great Wild Goose Pagoda, Xi'an (formerly Chang'an) 2004

In 646 Xuanzang completed his Great Tang Records on the Western Regions. the longest and most detailed account of the countries of Central and South Asia of the period. 900 years later his journey was fictionalised by Wu Cheng'en in Journey to the West, one of the earliest Chinese novels and 500 years after that set to music by Damon Albarn in Monkey: Journey to the West.

The photograph of the pagoda is from our pre-blog 2004 visit to Xi’an. We re-visited in 2008

Pagodas and the occasional dagoba are easy to find in China, but temples are less obvious. It is easy to book a Chinese tour and see no temples at all – an impossibility in India or Thailand. But they do exist, and I will start with the most important (though for political rather than religious or architectural reasons)

Guangji Si, Beijing

Power in China is centralised and Xi Jinping is their most authoritarian leader since Mao; religions can offer an alternative power base so the government keeps a firm grip on all religious activity. Guangji Si, in north central Beijing, is the headquarters of the Chinese Buddhist Association, so although the Buddhist flag flies, this is as near as makes no difference a government department.

Buddhist flags fly around the Incense incinerator, Guangji Si, Beijing

The temple was built in the 12th century but most surviving structures are Ming (1368 to 1644). Inside are some important sculptures and pictures, but we missed them. From the outside it is a typical building of its period.

Guangji Si, Beijing

There were also many closed doors - the offices of the association we presumed.

Visited 06/09/2013, see Beijing (2): Xicheng and Beihai Park

Yuantong Temple, Kunming

When we visited in November 2010 Kunming had forgotten that it is the ‘city of eternal spring’ and was practicing ‘Incipient Winter.’

The Location of Kunming and Xingyi

A little north of the city centre, Yuantong was built in the 8th century, rebuilt and expanded in the 15th and took its present form in the late 17th. It is (according to the Rough Guide) the ‘most important Buddhist site in northern Yunnan Province’ - faint praise or what?

Approaching from the south an ornamental gate leads into a garden.

Entrance, Yuantong Temple, Kunming

Beyond the garden an octagonal pavilion sits in a luridly green pond.

Octagonal Pavilion in a green pond, Yuantong Temple, Kunming

At the end is space for devotees to light their incense sticks and hold them in a bunch while bowing in each of the cardinal directions.

Burning incense, Yuantong Temple, Kunming

Prayers may then be offered while kneeling before a Buddha image.

Buddha image, Yuantong temple, Kunming

see Kunming to the Stone Forest (2010)

Cave Temple, Wanfengling, Xingyi

Xingyi is a small city (by Chinese standards) some 300 km east of Kunming. On the edge of the city is Wanfengling, the Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks. It is an area of karst geology and the peaks are jagged, other-worldly limestone cones.

One of the Wanfengling peaks. I cannot vouch for there being 10,000, but there are lots.

Temples and shrines – some Buddhist, most Daoist – abound and we encountered the temple below in a cave on the side of one such peak. The cave has been sacred since ancient times, but the statues of the Buddha are relatively new, the originals having being destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The residue of scrubbed out Cultural Revolution graffiti was still visible on the cave wall.

Main Buddha Images as a triad, Wanfengling Cave Temple

To the left, in front of a wall of small Buddha images, sits Budai, often erroneously called ‘Happy Buddha’. A possibly mythical Chinese monk, he allegedly travelled and taught in the Wuyue Kingdom (the Hangzhou/Shanghai region of Eastern China) during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960CE). His name comes from the Budai (cloth sack) in which he carried his belongings. His cheerful nature and humorous personality distinguish him among Buddhist masters and some venerate him as Maitreya, the ‘Future Buddha’.

Budai, not really the 'Happy Buddha'

See Xingyi and on to Huangguoshu (2010)

Lingyin Temple and Felai Feng, Hangzhou

The Lingyin-Felai Feng Scenic area is a 20-minute drive into the countryside outside Hangzhou in eastern China.

According to tradition, Lingyin (lit: Soul’s Retreat) Monastery was founded in 328 CE by an Indian monk given the Chinese name ‘Huili’. His ashes are allegedly entombed in the small, weathered Elder Li’s Pagoda.

Elder Li's Pagoda, Feilai Feng

Between the pagoda and Lingyin is Feilai Feng (lit: The Peak that Flew Here). Limestone is so unusual locally that the outcrop was surely whisked through the air from India by the power of Buddhist philosophy. It is covered with carvings many dating from the 10th century when Lingyin housed 3,000 monks.

Carvings, Feilai Feng

In the monastery courtyard visitors are presented with incense sticks.

Main courtyard, Lingyin Monastery

Which they light in the brazier...

Lighting the incense stick, Lingyin Monastery

…and bow in the four cardinal directions before planting them in the incense the burner.

Bowing to the north, Lingyin Monastery

The Guardian Hall, like most of the existing buildings dates from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). It contains four scary guardians who frighten off evil spirits…

Guardian, Lingyin Monastery

…while the main hall contains the primary Buddha image.

Main Buddha image, Lingyin

See Hangzhou (1) West Lake, Lingyin Temple and Longjing Tea (2016)

West Garden Temple, Suzhou

And finally for China, a brief look at the small and outwardly unremarkable West Garden temple in Suzhou.

Either the Drum or the Bell Tower, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

It has magnificent statues of the arhats, though doing them justice in a photograph was beyond me.

Arhats, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

But, best of all, is the pool at the back. For over 400 years it has been home to a colony of Asian giant soft-shelled turtles. As they only surface to breath twice a day it is very unlikely one will pop up when you have your camera ready. But it can happen.

Turtle, Fangsheng Pond, West Garden Temple, Suzhou

See Suzhou (3), The Lingering Garden and City Gate (2016)

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is China, but not China – as long as Xi Jinping permits.

The Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery, Shatin

The temple its on a low hill near Shatin railway station. The path up the hill is lined with arhats.

Arhats on the path ip to the 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

As an ensemble they always look eccentric, but that effect is multiplied when seen singly.

Arhat on the path up to 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

Even the courtyard at the top is surrounded by them. Clearly there is a story behind each one, as there is a story behind each Christian saint, but the statues do not make guessing easy.

Courtyard, 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

And, of course there are Buddha images, too, big ones….

Compassion Buddha, 10,000 Buddha Monastery, Hong Kong

….and little ones. Maybe there really are 10,000.

Little Buddhas by the thousand, 10,000 Buddha Monastery Hong Kong

North Korea

The Koreas with Sariwon circled

Buddhism arrived in Korea from China in 372 CE, largely supplanting Shamanism. Early Korean monks perceived inconsistencies in their inherited Mahayana traditions and their quest for harmony resulted in a distinctive Korean form of Mahayana known as Tongbulgyo ("interpenetrated Buddhism"). There must be something in the Korean air as over a millennium later the remarkably stable genius Kim Il Sung similarly resolved the inconsistencies in Marxism/Leninism/Maoism to create North Korea’s ruling ideology.

Songbul Monastery, Sariwon

Today the majority in both Koreas describe themselves as irreligious with only 16% of South Koreans and 5% in the North claiming to be Buddhists. There is of course complete freedom of religion in the worker’s paradise of North Korea and to prove it we were taken to Songbul Monastery near the city of Sariwon.

Founded in 898, the monastery consists of six buildings in a rough square….

Songbul Monastery, Sariwon

….including two of the oldest wooden buildings in Korea. The Kukrak Hall was last rebuilt in 1374 and the little pagoda outside is of much the same date.

Kukrak Hall and small pagoda, Songbul Monastery, Sariwon

Inside are the expected Buddha images (another appearance of a triad)...

Buddha Images, Kukrak Hall, Songbul

…while beside sits what what looks like an overlarge jury but is, presumably the arhats.

Arhats, Kukrak Hall, Songbul

They wheeled out the abbot to greet us….

Actors, Songbul Monastery

… but it’s not this chap, he is an actor like those lining the buildings in the top photo. The North Korean film industry is booming and ancient monasteries make excellent locations. The ‘real abbot’ is the guy below.

Lynne and the Abbot, Songbul Monastery

‘Are there any other monks?’ I asked through the interpreter. He assured me there were. ‘But where are they?’ ‘They are not here, but they are nearby.’ After a few days in North Korea you get used to the bland and unconvincing. I preferred the actors, at least they admitted they were just pretending.

See Sariwon to Nampho (11/09/2013)

Vietnam

Although officially atheist, Vietnam seems to permit genuine freedom of religion. According to the government 15% of the population identify as Buddhists and 8.5% as Christians (French colonialism created a catholic elite). Most of the rest are lumped together as no religion/folk beliefs. Folk religion has seen a revival and every house we entered, whether grand or humble had an ancestor altar in the entrance hall. Vietnamese Buddhism has no hierarchy to direct teaching and there is a growing overlap with folk beliefs.

Buddhism has deep roots in Vietnam, but it has never been the majority religion and Buddhist temples are harder to find than catholic churches.

The locations of pagodas mentioned below (and Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon)

The One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi

The tiny One Pillar Pagoda, once considered a symbol of Hanoi, is today overshadowed by the adjacent Ho Chi Minh museum and mausoleum. Built in the 11th century by King Le Thai Tong, it has suffered some heavy-handed restoration; the concrete single pillar looks anything but 11th century.

See Hanoi (3), the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Temple of Literature (2012)

The One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi

Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue

In Vietnam ‘pagoda’ is applied to the whole temple complex not just a particularly shaped building, though the 17th century ‘pagoda style’ building at Thien Mu is a symbol of the city.

Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue

The pagoda was busy and the local school parties noisy…

Thien Mu Pagoda, Hue

….but inside the atmosphere was calm and subdued, like the lighting.

A novice monk and a triad of Buddha images, Thien Mu, Hue

In one of the sheds around the courtyard was an elderly, rusting Austin Westminster.

Thích Quàng Đúc's Austin Westminster, Thein Mu Pagoda, Hue

In the early sixties, as the Vietnam war picked up ferocity, the autocratic, Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem marginalised Buddhist voices and ensured all positions of power went to Catholics. Buddhists felt persecuted.

In June 1963, Thích Quàng Đúc, the abbot of Thien Mu, drove to Saigon in this Austin Westminster and notified the foreign press that “something important” would happen. He sat in the lotus position at a major road intersection while a monk poured petrol over him, then he set himself alight. The “Buddhist crisis” was old news and only one press photographer turned up. Malcom Browne’s picture was World Press Photo of the Year 1963. It is an appalling image, as are many that came out of the Vietnam war. I will not reproduce it here but it can be seen on the relevant website.

The shrine of Thích Quàng Đúc on the corner where he died, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)

See Hue (2), A Self-immolating Monk, an Impotent Emperor and an Imperial Dinner (2012)

and
The Cu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Great Temple (2012)

Vinh Trang Pagoda, My Tho

In the heart of the Mekong delta, My Tho’s Vinh Trang Pagoda resembles none of the previous temples. Completed in 1850, it was seriously damaged ten years later during fighting between the French and Emperor Tu Duc. There was more major rebuilding after a tropical storm in 1907.

It has been described as ‘like a rajah’s palace’ or ‘blending classical European and Asian architecture’ but to me Vinh Trang is typical southern Vietnamese exuberance, not always in the best of taste but always vigorous, even flamboyant.

In front of the façade is a garden of tropical profusion....

Vinh Trang Pagoda behind its luxuriant garden, My Tho

...with a Disneyfied shrine...

Shrine, Vinh Trang Pagoda, My Tho

... and a large Budai, often, though incorrectly called the 'Happy Buddha'. It may have something to do with my build but I have occasionally been greeted with the words ‘Happy Buddha’ when sitting down in restaurants, I have even had my stomach patted. This should be taken as a compliment, the Vietnamese consider being well-nourished a sign of prosperity; they do not (yet) live in our strange inverted world where obesity and poverty so often walk hand in hand.

Two Happy Buddhas, Vinh Trang Pagoda, My Tho

The temple courtyard is lined with monks' cells and beyond there are more courtyards, more statues and a hall, but Vinh Trang is not about inside, it is a place to be enjoyed outside.

see The Mekong Delta (3) Cai Rang and My Tho (2012)

Finally

When I compiled the same sort of posts about mosques, it was obvious that, with rare exceptions, the buildings retained a definite Arabian style in deference to Islam’s Arabian origins. The opposite is true of Buddhism, Chinese Temples look Chinese, Vietnamese look Vietnamese – though different in north and south - and Korean look Korean. Buddhism is far more flexible and readily bends to the society in which it is taught, both in doctrine and architecture.

Buddhist Temples, Monasteries and Buddha Images

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Mahayana Buddhism
Part 3: Tibetan Buddhism
Part 4: Theravada (1) Sri Lanka
Part 5: Theravada (2) Myanmar
Part 6: Theravada (3) Laos, Cambodia & Thailand