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January 2021

-  The 'Three Pagodas'  -

It was one of those mouse-grey January days when my son Bruno and I arrived by train in the Chinese city of Dali in 2015 – on our long way to Shangri-La. In a very wondrous way, the fabulous name of this city had lured us in. However, the planned onward journey by bus seemed impossible because all roads were closed due to fresh snow. What to do? "I'm going to see the 'Three Pagodas' today," I said to Bruno, "are you coming?" But the cold and drizzling snow made an excursion unattractive for him, since there was a pool table and many other young travellers in our cosy, warm hostel. The 'Three Pagodas' were located just outside the ancient old quarter of Dali and towered over the grey houses of the suburbs in a clay-brown colour. Soon I had reached them on foot, paid the entrance ticket and, as no one objected, I simply sat down behind the large glass window in the entrance hall. There I painted the 'Three Pagodas' in the dry and warmth, while outside the snowflakes were still trickling from the sky. By the time the painting was finished, the snowfall had stopped and a pale sun was shining. I stepped outside, walked a short distance and now marvelled at the three towers up close. In each of the many niches on their outer walls stood a sacred figure. According to legend, the 'Three Pagodas' were built to protect the valley from the deadly invasion of the dragons of the Himalayas. I circled the towers and then followed a series of steps up to a much higher plateau. From there I hoped to get an even better view of the surroundings.

What I saw left me speechless. Not only the view over the large Ehain Lake awaited me, but also an impressive view in the uphill direction. For I was at the base of a gigantic Buddhist monastery complex that stretched upwards. The long red-painted buildings made of richly decorated wood had curved golden roofs, and even from down here it was recognisable that temple followed temple in this complex. My breath caught in disbelief. "Bruno, you should come," I immediately called my son. "I'm waiting for you here." Bruno understood the emphasis in my voice, took a taxi and was also soon standing next to me. Then together we climbed through this temple complex with hundreds of gilded, larger-than-life and very human-looking monk statues in the halls to the left and right and beautiful Buddha figures in transverse central buildings that grew from step to step to gigantic size. After paying due reverence, we left them at the back to climb further steps to the next building with an even larger, even more magnificent Buddha statue. On the highest accessible level, we had to climb ladders from platform to platform to see the head of the golden statue up close. However, the mysterious very last level of this temple complex was closed to visitors and access was reserved for monks only.

It was an unexpected experience that seemed almost unreal to both of us. The next day, the roads were miraculously clear of snow again and so we travelled further west by bus, high above the clouds to the Tibetan Plateau, reaching our destination Shangri-La two days later. We did not discover the mystical place we associated with this name there. But we had already found it days before in the temple complex behind the 'Three Pagodas' – even if we were not aware of it at the time. This and no other place was exactly what we had been looking for on our journey.

> order magnetic bookmark motif  'The 'Three Pagodas' '

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