The Tower Story

So I promised yesterday to explain about the tower in the 6 Banyan Tree Temple...here it is.
Let's remember that I am sick....upper respiratory whatever-it-is, which is enough to make me take nyquil and dayquil, but not enough to keep me in bed when I'm in a foreign country and have the oppurtunity to get OUT and see what's going on. So there is this tall wonderful tower inside the temple, which you have to buy an additional ticket to go up in. 10 Yuan, no big deal. (about $1.20) So I start climbing, and after the first 3 stories, I think, hmm...how far up does this go? Is it really worth getting to the top? Another 3 stories (me coughing up a lung) and I keep seeing "上上" (up) with an arrow...Aiyah? More? so I keep going...each floor there is the 上上 again....so I keep going. Finally I get to the top & there is another doorway, but you can go into the wall, but then you can't get inside, there is a locked screened door. so I peek my head inside to see what's in there, and I hear singing. Actually it's chanting, but it really was a form of singing. I've heard budhist chanting before and it never sounded like this. I think there were maybe 6 little doorways around this circular tower on the top floor, and in each one, there was a person sitting and singing. They were all singing the same thing, and all in unison.

The sound went inside this little room and just filled it with sound in a way I've never heard before. I sat there for awhile just listening to them sing. Finally as other people came up I got out so others could see. I walked around and saw one of the women from the back, and could hear her singing from the backside, and it sonded so hollow, so empty. But when I was inside one of those little spaces, the sound inside was so full, so filled with energy and feeling. I think it must have been the culmination of their voices, the space, the day, and the quiet from 9 stories above Guangzhou. We were even high enough to escape the incense smell. It was truly a moving moment. As I went back down the stairs again, I saw a big group of tourists all coming up together. I felt a little dissappointment that in their big group, they probably would not get the experience that I had just had up at the top, being a "solo" traveler. They would see the view, they'd look in the little door, and they'd come back down, without getting that overwhelming feeling of awe of the community that came together at the top of the tower.