The Temple Mount Code

10

‘Look! There it is!’ Gloria Chen walked slightly behind Lourds as he trudged through the snow, letting him do most of the work breaking through the frozen crust. The excitement in her voice drew his attention at once.

He’d been woolgathering, as he usually did when faced with physical drudgery and uninspiring surroundings, and a long walk up a mountain with more mountains around combined both those things.

The previous night, Gelu had persuaded them to rest and recuperate. The Sherpa guide had a good eye for people, and he’d told Lourds that several of the climbers, including Professor Hu, were all but worn-out. Gelu had promised they would comfortably reach their goal by the next evening, even after sleeping in.

Despite his anticipation and the urging of the BBC crew to keep moving, Lourds had agreed. They’d pitched camp there in the lee of the rocks, and the Sherpas had prepared the evening meal over a low fire. It wasn’t as relaxing as a ski resort, but it had been surprisingly comforting to be cared for. Lourds had slept like a baby in his tent.

The stone building sheltered under an overhang of rock shelf, and Lourds wasn’t surprised that no one had really known about the temple. At first he didn’t know what had caused Gloria to become so enthusiastic, then a gust of wind blew a cloud of snow over the rock shelf. The setting sun caught the flying ice particles, and their prismatic qualities cast a field of rainbows over the temple.

‘Rory?’ Lourds raised his voice above the wind screaming through the canyon.

‘Yeah, mate?’

‘Tell me you’re getting this with the camera.’

‘You better believe it. If this works out, I think we’re looking at our opening.’

Lourds’s heart sped up as he watched the beautiful swirl with a huge grin.

‘Wouldn’t it be shorter to walk across the valley?’ Lourds pointed his climbing staff at the circular depression between where they’d come up and the temple.

‘Walk across not good.’ Gelu shook his shaggy head. ‘Much danger. Much frozen that.’ He walked toward the depression, stood at the edge, and kicked away snowdrifts to reveal ice. He waved at the valley. ‘All ice. Not good.’

‘Come on, mate.’ Rory pointed across the long walk they had around the bowl. ‘If we walk across, it’s a lot shorter. Any ice up here is going to stay frozen.’

Gelu shook his head again. ‘Much frozen. Not all frozen. Holes there. Deep. Sometimes fall through and no come back.’

‘Ice is some of the most treacherous terrain up in these mountains.’ Lourds adjusted his protective goggles. ‘The snow blows, maybe melts a little on warmer days from the direct sunlight, and forms a thin crust over cracks and holes.’

‘Yes.’ Gelu nodded. ‘Much deadly, you see.’

‘With all the blowing snow shifting around, you might not see a crevasse until you went through it. You could fall a few hundred feet, and maybe your body would be found in a few hundred years.’ Lourds turned to the reporter. ‘Still feel like walking across now?’

Even with the cold turning Rory’s face pale, his features turned even whiter. ‘Nope. I can walk around just fine.’

Gelu assumed the lead once more, and they resumed their march.

‘You said the monks don’t get many visitors.’ Lourds matched his stride to the Sherpa’s.

‘No. No many. Only men seeking to know what monks know come here.’

‘What do the monks know?’

‘I not know. I know Sherpa ways. I know trade. I know guide.’ Gelu smiled. ‘I know how to feed myself, not need others to feed me.’

‘Have you ever gone to the monks to learn anything?’

‘Father taught me all I need to know. Work hard. Live careful. Raise strong sons and obedient daughters. What more is there?’

‘I suppose.’ As he walked, though, Lourds couldn’t help watching the gusting rainbows and wondering what lay inside the temple.

Professor Hu pulled at Lourds’s elbow. ‘You realize, of course, Thomas, that whatever made that temple special thousands of years ago could be long gone.’

‘I do.’

‘If it is, at least the BBC will have a lot of pretty footage of mountains and rainbows.’

‘I reconcile myself with one thought.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Even if a package is empty, many times you can learn a lot about what was there from the package itself.’

At Professor Hu’s side, Gloria Chen shot Lourds an exasperated glance. ‘Great thinking, but what if someone found a Big Mac wrapper? Do you really think that person could reconstruct how those two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun really went together?’ She shook her head. ‘I think we’d be better off if we found an artifact or two. So excuse me if I hope we find more than a wrapper up here.’

‘Gloria!’ Professor Hu studied her with a furrowed brow.

‘I’m sorry, Professor Hu. I think I’m just tired.’ Gloria didn’t look apologetic. She turned and headed back into the climbing party, Lourds watching her go with a puzzled expression on his face.

‘Good evening.’ Dressed in thick winter clothing, the young monk stood in the stone doorway and looked over the expedition with a beatific smile. ‘This is the Temple of the Scholar’s Rock. I am Ang. I bid you welcome.’

Gelu talked to the young man in Mandarin, explaining that the group was from Peking University and had come out all that way to see the temple.

Ang looked bemused as he turned to Lourds. ‘Usually climbers find us by mistake on their way up the mountain. Or we sometimes discover them when they are lost or while we are walking. You are the first to come looking for the temple in a long time.’

‘I hope our arrival and our curiosity won’t be an imposition. We’ve brought food, enough to leave with you and your brothers when we leave, and we have our own tents.’

Ang smiled. ‘Food is always welcome in the temple, and I’m certain we can find space for all of you. The temple is much bigger on the inside than it looks at first glance.’ He moved to one side of the door and waved them in. ‘Please. Enter. Our home is your home for as long as you wish.’

‘When he said it was bigger on the inside than it looked, I thought he meant it was only a little bigger.’ Rory stared in openmouthed wonder at the cavernous vault around them.

Lourds kept his own jaw in place with effort. The Scholar’s Rock Temple was huge and ran back deep into the mountain. His explorer’s instincts flared, and his hopes rose.

The walls looked natural in most places. The original builders had taken advantage of the existing cave system. Some of the other rooms contained scars from tools when they had been widened and deepened. Oil lanterns filled the rooms with a golden glow.

‘I am Brother Shamar. Please sit.’ A wizened old man waved at the small rugs adorning the smooth stone floor around him. He wore an orange saffron robe and sat cross-legged with an easy grace. Age had wrinkled his face so much that it looked like a raisin. Still, his dark eyes looked full of life and mischief.

Lourds and Hu introduced themselves. The audience was semiprivate. Rory and the BBC crew filmed from the doorway and used only the natural light coming from the oil lanterns hanging on the wall and the fireplace behind the old monk.

‘Why have you come to our temple?’ Shamar’s excellent English had a British accent.

‘Seeking knowledge.’ Lourds sat cross-legged and felt the heat from the fireplace melting into his body. The cold that had leached into his bones seemed like it was finally leaving.

‘You’re not here to investigate our faith, Professor Lourds. Your soul is too restless to travel quietly through this life.’

‘No, we’re not here about your faith. We came hoping to get information about this temple.’

‘What do you wish to know?’

‘First, let me give you some information.’ Lourds brought out the picture of the tortoiseshell map and explained how he’d found it and how they’d located the temple.

‘An impressive story.’ Shamar seemed genuinely interested. ‘I had no idea of the temple’s history. It was already here when the first monks arrived. Our histories record no origin of this place.’

‘It was like this?’

‘Much as you see it now. Few changes have been made. Ours is a simple faith. We live within the world as it is and don’t seek to change it to fit our desires. Monks come here to strip away the cares and concerns of the outside world so that we might become better teachers when we reenter that world. Our time here is spent in study and mastering our spirits.’

‘Why is it called the Temple of the Scholar’s Rock?’

‘The temple was named so in honor of the many scholar’s rocks found here.’

‘Uh, Professor Lourds.’

Lourds peered over his shoulder at Rory.

‘Maybe you could explain what a scholar’s rock is. You know, for the audience back home?’

‘Young man.’ Shamar lifted his voice.

‘Yes, sir?’

The monk smiled beatifically. ‘Would you care to join us?’

‘Uh, no. I’m good right here. Thanks.’

‘If you would learn something, you must go to the feet of one who knows and talk, not bellow from the shadows.’

Rory scratched his head, then came forward reluctantly and sat cross-legged on one of the rugs.

Lourds answered the question. ‘A scholar’s rock is also known as a viewing stone. They’ve been around for a long time, but they were brought to prominence in the Song Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty defined the four main visual qualities of a scholar’s stone: thinness, openness, perforations, and wrinkling. I’ll give you the Cantonese words for those things later.’

‘What do you do with a scholar’s stone?’

Shamar laughed.

Lourds smiled. ‘Well, you appreciate it.’

Rory’s brow furrowed. ‘Appreciate it? A rock? This isn’t like a pet rock, is it? You aren’t after having me on, are you?’

‘No, not at all. Generally a scholar’s rock is used for decoration in a garden. They have interesting shapes, holes, and perforations. The texture of the rocks is smooth. The smoother the better. The preferred method of getting them is simply finding them, but sometimes artisans helped nature along by cutting stones into interesting shapes and immersing them in running water or a lake so the sharp edges would wear away.’

Rory’s brow furrowed. ‘That would take years.’

‘Of course it took years. But the texture was prized. A lot of scholar’s stones come from lakes, such as from Taihu Lake, and they’re used in gardens. Once the Chinese started using scholar’s rocks, the Koreans picked the art form up in their country, as did the Japanese in their suiseki art.’

‘The lesson, you see, is to learn to find and appreciate art in nature.’ Shamar nodded in satisfaction. ‘Now let me show you the cavern that gave this place its name.’ With the easy grace of a child, he stood and walked toward one of the doors.

Ang took down one of the oil lanterns and fell into step with him.

Caught off guard, Lourds quickly scrambled to his feet, gave Hu a hand, and followed.