Hidden Monastery

by Gabrielle Wang

  ‘You can take as many as you like.’ Yu Yu reached inside the steamer and with a pair of chopsticks piled her bowl high.

  As Jax stood in the queue waiting his turn, he watched Yu Yu. He couldn’t get over the fact that she wasn’t Chinese. All her actions, the way she used her chopsticks, her body movements and her speech were exactly like a Chinese girl’s. She even giggled like one, covering her mouth with her hand. Where and how you grow up has so much to do with who you are, he thought.

  ‘Mingzi, Mingzi.’ Yu Yu nudged him. ‘You’re staring. Were you thinking about your mother and father? Do you miss them?’

  ‘No, I was just thinking.’

  ‘Good, the Abbot likes his students to think. Now, help yourself. I’m going to sit over there opposite that fat monk, all right? I’ll save you a place.’

  Jax put four baozi on a plate and filled up his bowl with millet porridge. ‘Way, newcomer,’ said the cook, greeting him. ‘Here are two extra-fat buns to welcome you to Whispering Cloud Monastery.’ Cook Fan used a long pair of chopsticks and pulled out two chubby white buns.

  Jax held out his bowl and smiled. ‘Xie xie, thank you,’ he said, then he threaded his way through the long tables to Yu Yu. In amongst the shaved heads, she stood out like a sunflower in a field of melons.

  ‘This is Mingzi, my special friend,’ said Yu Yu as Jax sat down next to her. ‘And this is Lao Bing, my other special friend.’

  The fat monk grinned at Jax. He had a fresh round face with two shiny cheeks and long ear lobes. ‘We were wondering when you were coming,’ he said, his mouth stuffed full of bun.

  Yu Yu looked up at Jax and raised one eyebrow. She seemed as puzzled as he was by Lao Bing’s remark.

  Jax was about to ask what he meant when Yu Yu nudged his knee under the table. ‘The Abbot’s watching us. We’re not meant to talk while we eat. “Good food makes good energy if you enjoy it,” he says.’

  Jax quickly leant over his bowl and began eating. The sipping, slurping noises that came from the fat monk across the table made Jax feel as if he was eating a delicious banquet prepared for an emperor, instead of a humble breakfast of porridge and buns.

  Coming to Whispering Cloud Monastery was the weirdest situation he had ever found himself in, but Jax felt strangely at home.

  Flying High

  Peng’s paws were soft from living under the sea. So when he trod on a jagged piece of tin that had been dumped into the lake, it sliced easily through his flesh. The pain had made him cry out, scaring the two-legged creature away from the shore. He lifted his paw out of the water and licked the wound clean. His saliva soon stopped the flow of blood. When he looked up again, the creature was gone. They had met before, that much Peng knew. And they would surely meet again – when the time was right.

  Peng settled into his new home. He felt strangely drawn towards this lake and knew it was where he was supposed to be. When night fell, the insects of the rainforest sang a new song. They sang about the life of the Peng, his great power and wisdom, and how he had come down from the stars to balance the violence in Nature. And they sang of the Peng Master who would be linked to him forever. They told of who Peng was and what he was to become. ‘You will live one thousand years,’ they sang, ‘and in your lifetime there will be many Peng Masters. Every so often, there comes a time when both Peng and the master are newly born. It is that time now. You are young and so is your master. Be careful, be careful,’ they sang, ‘for you are both not yet wise, nor strong.’

  By morning, the insects of the rainforest were quiet. They had told the story of Peng, so that all the creatures would know him and so that he might fulfil his destiny.

  Each day, Peng practised flying. If he was to grow into a truly great Peng, he knew he had to be a skilful flyer. With each new day, he flew higher and higher until he was flying in the clouds, gathering them up before him and chasing them away.

  Peng knew that one day, when he was fully grown, he would have the ability to fill up the whole sky. And then, in an instant, to shrink to the size of an ant and sit on a blade of grass without causing it to bend. Such was Peng’s great power. And yet, it was only with a Peng Master that Peng would reach his full potential.

  So Peng practised, and waited in the wide lake for the training of the master to be completed.

  In the Courtyard of Imaginings

  The temple grounds were huge. Now in daylight, Jax could see that it would be impossible to escape even if he wanted to – the whole place was surrounded by a high wall. There were two main buildings where the monks prayed, one behind the other, and the sleeping quarters and kitchen were off to the side. Each building had its own wide courtyard with a large tree in the corner. As Jax went past the open doorway of one of the prayer buildings, he looked inside. The interior of the building was intricately painted, with heavily carved pillars holding up the high ceiling. At the back of the monastery, a narrow staircase led up to a smaller building embedded in a rocky cliff.

  ‘What’s that place?’ Jax asked Yu Yu.

  ‘That’s where the Abbot lives. Come on. We had better go. He’ll be waiting for you.’

  They crossed the Courtyard of Imaginings to where the Abbot was talking with some monks under a big tree with golden leaves. The blinking sunshine made dappled shadows dance on their faces.

  Each monk had one leg propped up high on the roots of the tree and they were stretching. They all wore the same clothes as Yu Yu – pale yellow robes tied at the waist with a sash, baggy pants with leggings and straw sandals. On the far side of the courtyard, another group of monks stood with their legs spread wide and their toes pointed in. They were bending over touching their heads to their ankles. On a wide terrace other monks practised martial arts, moving softly but powerfully in unison.

  ‘That little monk is Lao Tan,’ said Yu Yu pointing to a tiny monk who was not much bigger than Jax’s little sister, Mai. ‘He’s so good at using the staff. Watch.’

  The monk stood straight, holding a long staff at his side. Suddenly he brought it up and swung it over his head then spun it around his body. It was so fast it looked like a lasso. Whoosh, swoosh… the staff whizzed through the air. He then planted the tip in the ground and jumped up, kicking out with his legs. He held the position for at least a minute, balancing perfectly.

  Jax stared in awe, his mouth open. ‘I wish I could do that. Do you think the Abbot would teach me how to do that, first?’

  ‘It takes years and years of practise,’ said Yu Yu. ‘First you have to learn to fight with your hands before you can learn weapons. The Abbot says, “You have to learn to walk before you can run”.’

  Jax felt disheartened. It’s going to take me ages to learn, he thought. ‘Why do monks learn gongfu, anyway? I mean, temples and monks are about religion and praying, right? And gongfu is about fighting – it doesn’t make sense to me.’

  Yu Yu laughed. ‘Only the weak have to fight so that they can pretend to be strong. Through training and discipline, you can become strong in spirit. That is what gongfu is: “gongfu” means “long-time training”… you know that.’

  Jax reddened. He had forgotten the original meaning of the word.

  Just then the Abbot walked over to them. ‘Now for your test, Mingzi,’ he said. ‘Are you ready?’

  Jax began to feel nervous.

  ‘Don’t be worried. All I want you to do is focus your mind. Can you do that?’

  That was the test? Jax had thought the Abbot was going to make him do a hundred push-ups or something. ‘Yes, I can focus my mind, easy.’

  ‘That’s good,’ smiled the Abbot. ‘Yu Yu, can I borrow your watch?’

  Yu Yu fished around inside her robe and took off a small gold pendant-watch on a long chain that she wore around her neck. Jax hadn’t seen any of the monks with watches. Come to think of it, there wasn’t a clock in the whole place. He wondered how they knew what time it was.

  The Abbot opened his palm. On it sat a smooth black stone. ‘Now, I want you to loo
k at this stone for one minute without thinking of anything else. No thoughts. Can you do that?’

  One minute? That’s so easy. An hour might be hard, Jax thought. He nodded.

  ‘All right then.’ The Abbot looked down at the watch. ‘You can start… now.’

  Jax stared at the stone. After a few seconds he thought, this is easy. Then he thought, whoops, I’m not supposed to think of anything else. Then he thought, no wait, that’s another thought too! Just think of the stone! Okay… He focussed his eyes again. The Abbot’s hands are so smooth… oh no… another thought… okay… back to the stone…

  After wrestling with these thoughts backwards and forwards, Jax finally managed to clear them out and settle his mind. His breathing deepened, coming from his belly, and he began to relax into the exercise.

  ‘Time!’ the Abbot said.

  Jax blinked his eyes, wishing it wasn’t over yet. It was much harder than he had expected. But he thought he had done quite well in the end. ‘That was fun. What does that show, Abbot?’

  ‘Well, one thing it shows is that we prefer to look at moving things. If something doesn’t move, we can sometimes stop seeing it altogether. Even if it is right in front of your face all the time.’

  Jax looked puzzled.

  Yu Yu giggled. ‘He means your nose, silly.’

  The Abbot laughed, too. ‘You have shown me that you have a surprising ability to quickly focus your mind. Most people take much longer to settle down their thoughts.’

  ‘It took me weeks!’ Yu Yu said, nodding her approval.

  Jax felt proud of himself. Nobody had ever told him he was good at something before.

  ‘Now the next test is a little harder –’

  The Abbot was interrupted by a big boy, dressed like a monk but with shaggy hair, swaggering around the corner. Yu Yu quickly stood up and put herself between him and Jax, but the boy pushed her out of the way and stepped up to Jax, a threatening look on his face.

  ‘So who are you, new boy?’ the bully asked, poking his finger in Jax’s chest. Jax looked at the Abbot for help but the Abbot didn’t seem to know what to do.

  The big boy pushed Jax backwards. He tripped on a round stone, and fell on his bottom in the dust.

  ‘Ha ha ha!’ The bully laughed and went swaggering off, disappearing around the corner again.

  Yu Yu helped Jax up, brushing the dust off him. Tears of humiliation and frustration smarted in his eyes, but he wouldn’t cry, not in front of Yu Yu and the Abbot.

  ‘Such a bad boy,’ said the Abbot, mildly. ‘He has much to learn. I can get a couple of the older monks to catch him, and we will punish him if you want.’

  A strong feeling welled up inside of Jax, yelling for revenge, to have the boy caught, held and humiliated, as he had been. Then something older and wiser gently pushed aside this demand for revenge, and he heard his mother’s voice in his head saying, ‘Revenge is for people who haven’t grown up inside. It never fixes things, it just keeps going round and round.’

  Jax sighed, wiping the dirt off his hands. ‘No, its all right. He wants to feel strong. That’s why he’s a bully. But I think people like him are really weak. Let’s forget it. I want to do the other test, Abbot. The one that’s supposed to be harder.’

  The Abbot nodded his head and smiled, ‘Actually, Mingzi, you just passed that test. Now I know that I can teach you the fighting moves of gongfu, and you will not use them to bully others. You’ve done very well, today.’ He patted Jax on the back. ‘Go and rest a while. Yu Yu can get you some temple clothes to wear. We will resume later.’ The Abbot walked up the stairs and into one of the big buildings.

  Yu Yu smiled at Jax. ‘Pretty good for a ghost boy,’ she said.

  ‘I didn’t know all those things had to do with gongfu. I thought it was all fighting and stuff.’ He watched as Yu Yu played with the chain on her pendant-watch. ‘Why are you the only one with a watch? Where did you get it from?’

  ‘The monks use the sun or the moon or the energy of the day to tell the time, so they don’t need one of these things. When I was found on the steps of the monastery, they also found this watch beside me. It must have belonged to my –’ Yu Yu looked away for a moment and Jax was sure she was about to cry.

  He gently changed the subject. ‘Do you like it here in Whispering Cloud?’

  She sniffed. ‘Of course I do. This is my home and the Abbot is like my father and the monks are my uncles. I have good food three times a day, I know how to fight, to grow vegetables, to cook, and everyone spoils me.’ Yu Yu shrugged. ‘I think I am a very lucky girl.’

  Even though Yu Yu said these words, Jax sensed a deep sadness behind them.

  Jax tried to think about his own family, Ma, Ba and Mai, but something strange was happening to his mind. When he tried to imagine them, they seemed to be enveloped in a thick fog.

  ‘What about you, Mingzi? Do you have a family?’

  ‘I… I… have a mother and father… and… a little sister. Her name’s Mai… It’s funny, but I can’t remember them very well any more.’

  ‘You’re probably still tired. Don’t worry.’ Yu Yu picked up Jax’s hand and turned it over. ‘This little creature is so beautiful.’ She traced the mark with her finger. ‘I wish I had one.’

  ‘All my life I’ve wondered about it,’ said Jax with a sigh.

  ‘You know, Mingzi, I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere before.’ Yu Yu looked thoughtful for a moment, then her green eyes sparkled. ‘Come with me. I’ve just remembered where.’

  The Abbot’s Chamber

  ‘Where are we going?’ Jax asked, trying to keep up with Yu Yu.

  ‘To the Abbot’s chamber. He’s in prayers now, so we can sneak in.’

  ‘What if he catches us?’

  Yu Yu was too far ahead to hear. All Jax could do was follow her across the now deserted courtyard, and up the wooden staircase to the Abbot’s rooms. Yu Yu took the steps two at a time. Jax tried to do the same, but after six steps his legs ached and he was puffed out. A long balcony led to a wooden door at the end. Yu Yu slid it open and stepped into the room.

  It was twice the size of the monks’ rooms. A bookshelf leant against one wall, a bed against the other, and a tall square table with carved legs stood in front of the window. The table was laden with paint brushes of all sizes, and beside it on the ground was a large china pot with scrolls of varying lengths poking out of the top.

  ‘The Abbot does his calligraphy and watches us practising from up here,’ Yu Yu said, going to the window. She looked down over the rooftops and courtyards of the monastery. The cool breeze blew wisps of yellow hair across her face. Everything is so peaceful in the monastery, thought Jax. In the distance, he could see the lake, the ancient banyan tree and the rainforest. He looked for the city, but haze blurred the horizon.

  His thoughts were interrupted when Yu Yu walked to the bookshelf. She began running her hands over the spines of books, pausing on one, hesitating on another and smiling, as if she was greeting each one like an old friend. All the books looked ancient, with cloth covers and hand-sewn seams.

  ‘What are you looking for?’ Jax asked, standing beside her.

  ‘I’m not sure yet… I haven’t been in here for a very long time… wait… here it is.’ She stood on her tiptoes and pulled out a book from the top shelf then laid it on the table. The pages were yellowing and tissue-thin from years of use.

  ‘Zheli. Here, look, Mingzi,’ said Yu Yu, pointing at a drawing. ‘I knew I’d seen it before.’ Yu Yu’s eyes were as bright as two green butterflies.

  When Jax saw the picture, he gasped. It was just a line drawing, but the only difference between the creature on the page and the one on his palm was that his creature was still very young. The creature in the drawing had matured into a magnificent beast with a lion-like head, a horn in the middle of its forehead, and long flowing mane and tail. And he was flying through the clouds as if he was ruler of all the skies.

  ‘How is this possible?’ J
ax whispered, looking from his palm to the illustration. ‘This book must be ancient.’

  On the opposite page were three lines of characters. It was a poem written in seal script, one of the ancient forms of Chinese writing.

  ‘Can you read those characters?’ Jax asked. He had never learnt to read seal script, he could barely read modern-day Chinese characters.

  ‘The Abbot taught me to read and write by using these old books,’ said Yu Yu. ‘That’s how I knew the picture was here in the first place. Let’s see now.’

  She read the characters out aloud, ‘Great Peng carries… wind… on back… sun between… shoulders… moon… curve of… tail. The great Peng carries the wind on his back, the sun between his shoulders, and the moon in the curve of his tail.’

  ‘So is that what Peng is? A huge creature that flies in the sky?’ Jax couldn’t believe that such a creature could actually exist. ‘Do you think he’s real, Yu Yu?’

  Yu Yu shrugged. ‘The Abbot seems to think so.’ She put her face close to the page. ‘Mingzi, can you see there on Peng’s head? I think there are two tiny characters.’

  Jax took the book from Yu Yu and went across to the window where the light was brighter. And sure enough, just below the creature’s horn, were the two characters: ri and yueh… sun and moon.

  ‘If you join them together, that’s your name,’ said Yu Yu over his shoulder.

  Jax felt a shiver go through him. Was it just a coincidence? Suddenly, the sound of three drumbeats made Jax jump.

  ‘Oh dear, prayers are over. Quick, Mingzi, the Abbot will be coming back for a rest.’ She carefully took the book from Jax and put it back on the shelf. Then she arranged the books exactly as they were before.

  Just as they were sliding the door shut behind them, the Abbot appeared at the top of the stairs.

  ‘What are you two doing here?’ he said sternly.

  ‘Well… Mingzi didn’t, ah… feel very well, Abbot,’ Yu Yu said, thinking quickly, ‘so I came to see if you could give him some medicine.’