Buddhist Blessings for the Girls
Dan-Dan was a bit tuckered out from the events of the last few days and got a few last winks of sleep prior to us leaving for the Buddhist Temple.
The Temple we visited has been around for over 1,500 years but is much smaller in land size due to encroachment of surrounding buildings. Regardless, there is a certain serenity on the temple grounds.
We toured the grounds prior to the ceremony, entered the temple, removed our shoes and proceeded to kneel at the temple while a buddhist monk led a chant and blessed us all for a good healthy life.
It was a wonderful ceremony and acknowledged Dan-Dan's connection to her birth religion. While Dan-Dan won't be raised as a Buddhist, Sue and I welcome the blessing of our little girl. You can't get enough "health wishes", I say.
After the ceremony, we gathered as a group and took the following picture:
After the blessing, we returned to the White Swan Hotel and proceeded to take a group photo of the children from Guangdong Province.
It was a bit of a chore getting them all to sit still, but we somehow accomplished it. (Perhaps Buddha was looking down on us after all.)
We also took one last group shot of everyone in the tour (Matt and Tim were playing GameBoy in our room), as Miriam was leaving at 5:30am to return to Seattle.
The White Swan has a couple gorgeous Jade sculptures that I've included here. The photo's don't do them justice as you just can't imagine the amount of work required to complete these out of a single block of Jade.
Lastly, I included a picture of the waterfall and atrium area of the Hotel. We've really enjoyed our stay here and encourage anyone who comes to Guangzhou to stay here, too.
The Temple we visited has been around for over 1,500 years but is much smaller in land size due to encroachment of surrounding buildings. Regardless, there is a certain serenity on the temple grounds.
We toured the grounds prior to the ceremony, entered the temple, removed our shoes and proceeded to kneel at the temple while a buddhist monk led a chant and blessed us all for a good healthy life.
It was a wonderful ceremony and acknowledged Dan-Dan's connection to her birth religion. While Dan-Dan won't be raised as a Buddhist, Sue and I welcome the blessing of our little girl. You can't get enough "health wishes", I say.
After the ceremony, we gathered as a group and took the following picture:
After the blessing, we returned to the White Swan Hotel and proceeded to take a group photo of the children from Guangdong Province.
It was a bit of a chore getting them all to sit still, but we somehow accomplished it. (Perhaps Buddha was looking down on us after all.)
We also took one last group shot of everyone in the tour (Matt and Tim were playing GameBoy in our room), as Miriam was leaving at 5:30am to return to Seattle.
The White Swan has a couple gorgeous Jade sculptures that I've included here. The photo's don't do them justice as you just can't imagine the amount of work required to complete these out of a single block of Jade.
Lastly, I included a picture of the waterfall and atrium area of the Hotel. We've really enjoyed our stay here and encourage anyone who comes to Guangzhou to stay here, too.
posted by Greg Franz at
2:00 AM
1 Comments:
Hi, I saw your blog and what memories it brought back. My wife and I brought Olivia home from MaoNan SWI in May of this year. On your Blog, I saw some pictures of the orphanage and recognized some of the people that were there; the White Swan; and Shamin Island. We also went to Beijing for a few days before going to Guangzhou. Hope your little-one is doing well. Olivia has really adjusted to her new home, though I hope we can take her back to MaoMing and Guangzhou one day. Take care, Brian
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