京城寺院初體驗

老外在中國 A Foreigner in China

My Beijing Temple Experiences

I am an English teacher in China， which is not really that special. There are now thousands of people doing exactly what I do， and the numbers are increasing all the time. However， I feel lucky to have my job because I work with the Beijing Olympic Committee to help administrators and National Technical Officials prepare for next year's Summer Games. My work can be exhausting， but I am both inspired and humbled by my students' dedication and the Olympic Movement's universal ideals of peace and competition.

我是在中國教書的英語老師，這一點并無特別之處。如今有成千上萬的人在做著和我一樣的工作，而且這個數(shù)量還在持續(xù)增長。然而使我慶幸的是，我同北京奧組委一起幫助行政官員和國家的技術官員為明年的奧運做準備。我常會覺得筋疲力盡，但同時被學生們?yōu)閵W運所做的貢獻以及和平與競爭的奧運理念所激勵。與他們相比，我所做的顯得如此的微不足道。

That inspiration also extends to both Jie Tai and Tan Zhe Si. On a cloudy but hot summer day， one of my excellent students was kind enough to take me to Jie Tai \"Si\"， or \"temple\"， and one of the neighboring temples: Tan Zhe Si. In those places， I felt both inspired and humbled by the ancient structures and enduring calm of the temples.

到了戒臺寺和潭柘寺，我再次體驗到了這種感覺。夏日的一天，有點悶熱，我其中一個學生帶我去參觀戒臺寺以及與其相隔不遠的潭柘寺。置身其中，我為這些年代久遠的古建筑群和古剎的清靜所動容，同時也感受到了自身的卑微。

Our first stop was Jie Tai Si - an \"AAAA National Tourist Attraction\" nestled in the hills in the west side of Beijing. We parked our car and I took pictures from the parking lot. The view was fantastic. Several vendors were sitting or standing around the parking lot， selling incense and beads and little Buddhist statues. As we walked toward the temple's main gate， one of the vendors was quite determined to sell us his incense and followed us for several meters.

我們的第一站是位于北京西郊馬鞍山麓的4A級景區(qū)——戒臺寺。這里風景怡人。停罷了車，我在停車場拍了些照片。停車場旁有些小攤販，或坐或站地在賣佛香、佛珠和一些小型的菩薩造像。我們朝寺門走去，其中一個攤主跟了我們好幾米想讓我們買些香火。

Out of respect for traditional customs， pictures are not encouraged in the temples. That they would restrict photographs wasn't surprising to me， since I have visited other temples in Asia before and because in the United States， people usually don't take pictures inside churches either. However， unlike the US， we had to buy tickets to enter the temple. In the United States， churches and places of worship are free to enter.

寺內禁止拍照，出于對傳統(tǒng)習慣的尊重，我們也不敢“破戒”。我也參觀過其它一些亞洲的寺院，因此我對此“禁拍令”并不意外，再說在美國人們也通常不在教堂里面拍照。然而和美國不同，我們買了票才能進寺。在美國諸如教堂等供人參拜的場所都是免費進入的。

The inside of Jie Tai Si was very clean. We walked around the temple grounds and noticed some new white prayer stones under construction. The stones were about 3 meters tall and framed with traditional Chinese symbols of good luck like clouds and dragons. We saw an artist carving characters into one of the stones and he said that it could take a couple of hours to finish carving 1 character. It was interesting to see how carefully each stroke of the characters was carved. After carving， the characters are painted gold and red.

戒臺寺內非常整潔。我們繞著寺內走了一遭，看見幾塊還未完成的漢白玉石刻，石碑約有三米高，邊上飾有中國傳統(tǒng)的龍紋和祥云圖案。……