Field Trip

Report For The First Field Trip On 19th of March 2014, my tutor, classmate and I went to a Vietnamese Buddhism Temple. I was very exciting before the trip. Since I don’t have transport to go to the temple, I went to the classroom that we used to go during our class time and gathered with my tutor to ask her to fetch me to the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple. When I reached the classroom, our tutor, Dr Lili Zhang was talking to a male tutor about some trip to Japan and how the people there treat foreigner. So at around 12.55pm, we departed from our university to the temple. Since most of the students in our class have their own transport, there were only three students including me in the car. In the car, my tutor asked me about the lost planes of Malaysia and she briefly explained what we will go in the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple. It took 5 to 10 minutes to reach the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple. When we reached the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple, we saw many cars had parked at the car park of the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple and our first thought is most of the cars are the car of our classmates. This is because usually there is no much people will go to the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple. Once we had parked the car, we were gathered at the front door of the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple to wait all of our classmates who wanted to come. That day was like 8degree Celsius and I was so freezing that day. While we were waiting for our classmates, our tutor talked about the design of the temple. What exterior materials that they used for the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple and the color of the building. She also explained why they used those materials to build the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple. She said all of the material was brought from China, all the dragon on the rooftop, the two big dragons placed at the front door, all the statues, and some little stuff. Once all of our classmates were there, our tutor asked us to follow her to walk around the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple. We were led by our tutor and walked to the garden beside the temple. I do not remember the first thing that we saw when we started our walking but I do remember some of the stuff that we saw that day. We saw a lot of rocks on both sides of the road, and then our tutor told us that rocks is to make the place looks better and its one of the culture of Buddhism temple. However, all the rocks are not real rocks. It is only for beauty purpose. Then we saw a big statues, his name is ‘Guan Yin’. He is riding a big dragon and standing on a huge hill. In front of him, there is a lake. Usually there will be some fishes in the lake, but I don’t see any in their lake. There was a table as well, you can buy some candle to make wishes and pray for your wishes to come true. After the ‘Guan Yin’ statues, we walked through a pavilion with a Chinese chess table within it. Then we saw one ‘Ma Zhu’ statues under a big tree, I do not understand why the put the ‘Ma Zhu’ in the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple but it surely has its own meaning. After that, we walked to another big statue which is placed in another pavilion. It was covered by yellow color cloths and our tutor showed us how Chinese pray and the things that they use for praying. After that, we went into the temple. When we went into the temple, our tutor was looking for the monk that she had an appointment with but she can’t find him. Since we had no much time, our tutor changed her plan and started to explain some of the culture by herself. After a while, the monk came into the temple and he started to explain about the culture of Buddhism. He started his speech with the “Buddha’s Teaching’ and followed by the meditation of Buddhism. At the end of his speech, he asked us to try the meditation our self because he believes that meditation can help us to relax our self and let us have a better life. After that, we were dismissed and my two classmates and I followed my tutor’s car to go back to our university. In this field trip, I found that the Vietnamese Buddhism Temple is much different from the temple that I used to go. No matter from the interior or exterior. On the other hand, a lot of people always say that culture changed the society, but as we can see from the temple, I don’t really think that culture changes the society. Why say so? This is because all the interior and exterior design was not based on Buddhism’s culture. It’s an idea from the constructor who builds this temple. The exterior design is more to China palace and the interior design is more to Christianity’s feel. Maybe this is the design of Vietnamese Buddhism Temple but it is not the type of temple that I used to go. This is a new experience for me and this is the first time for me to go to a temple in The United States. This trip did gave me new knowledge and I hope we will have another chance to go for another field trip with my fellow tutor and all my fellow classmates.