Tea Moments With Kevin

I. Where the Coral Trees Bloom, Ancient Temples Echo with Chants   In the dawn light of the Great Buddha Hall of Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, twenty-four wooden flying apsaras soar through the air, holding traditional Nan musical instruments, their garments flowing with the breeze of the maritime Silk Road from the Song and Yuan dynasties. This temple, founded in the second year of the Tang Dynasty's Chuigong era (686 CE), holds within its beams and pillars the secrets of a millennium of Buddhist heritage in southern Fujian. From the arrival of Buddhism with the migration of scholars during the Western Jin Dynasty's Tai Kang era (280-289 CE) to Quanzhou's rise as the "Greatest Oriental Port" during the Song and Yuan periods, diverse religious civilizations converged and blended here. Within Kaiyuan Temple, Hindu stone pillars dance alongside Buddhist apsaras, while the Manichaean Buddha of Light at Cao'an Temple stands in harmony with the Qingshui Patriarch, sk...