The Temple of Peace and Tranquility

Jing'an Temple

Take a 30 minute walk from Lakeville Regency apartments, where Westerners make their high-rise homes, past Xintiandi Mall, where you can buy high-end clothing, across Huaihai Road, choked with taxis, buses, and cars, take a left on clamorous West Nanjing Road, go past swanky Plaza 66, where Nike and Prada have their Asian headquarters, and you will come upon the Temple of Peace and Tranquility.

3D fresco depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha

Jing'an Temple has stood here, a lotus flower amid the changeful waters of Shanghai, for nearly 800 years. (Coming, as I do, from the youngest part of the Western World, it is strange to think that while Europeans were jousting with armor and lance, golden-robed monks were even then burning incense in the courtyard and bowing to the Stone Buddhas.)

Ornate woodwork

The temple has been razed and rebuilt more than once in that time. Most recently, in 1972, it was partially consumed by fire. But just as the essence of being is rebirthed, so too, the temple.

More fresco

Buddha in the Hall of the Great Hero

Incense offering

Pungent smoke fills the courtyard

I dreamed of eternity

Golden lions

Fresco on an exterior wall

Tower in the courtyard