Ami-Tofu, Kwan Yin Tofu? (monastic food)

The Food Ranger in China; Jeon Kwan; Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

VIDEO: Ven. Jeong Kwan on how food is a pathway to enlightenment  (Jeon Kwan)

Eating Chinese Buddhist monastic food in Chengdu at Wenshu Temple 文殊院

(The Food Ranger. 1/25/15) Exploring Chengdu's Buddhist temples is always an enjoyable activity. What about trying the food that the monastics eat? It's time to try the food surrounding Wenshu Temple and inside the temple itself in Chengdu. Food Ranger, ExpressVPN, IG, FB. Location: Wenshuyuan (文殊院), Chengdu. The food outside the temple is awesome. Enter around noon or 5:00 pm and lineup inside the temple for FREE food, which is not as spicy and flavorful as the street food vendors, but it's amazing to eat inside and get a glimpse of what monks and nuns eat.

 

Ami-Tofu, your Guanyin Tofu is ready

Guanyin Tofu, dried, a China-protected geographical indication product (chihuoclub.com)

Hindu Avalokita now Guanyin

Guanyin Tofu is golden with an appetizing fragrance. It's savory and chewy, sturdy and sweet and popular in Chiquo, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Guangzhou, China.

It's an odd name because when I was staying at a Buddhist nunnery in New Mexico, near Yogi Bhajan's Yogi Tea Ashram, the common greeting was Ami-tofu (like Hare Krishnas saying Haribol! or WW II Germans and my neighbor, Robbie, shouting Heil Himmler!). And I always thought, "Tofu?"

All of our food was delicious and vegetarian, healthy and hearty in the alpine-zone snow, so full of diversity as is common in the thousand-year tradition of Chinese temple food.

All hail Kwan Yin! (Guanyin)

But Amitabha Buddha was what the greeting, not doufu. So why do they say tofu -- and not Guanyin Tofu? I didn't dare ask.

The Western Paradise historical Buddha from Afghanistan (Gandhara) and India has been supplanted by Amitabha in China.

Amitoufu is a "new and improved Buddha," a celestial God, more Hindu savior than self-realized human showing the way to liberation from all suffering by example.

Kwan Yin is a Madonna with child

The "prayers" and "vespers" in the meditation hall and before eating seemed to have more to do with Guanyin Pusa, or the Bodhisattva of Compassion Kwan Yin.

And for my one-month stay we had an enlightened Western monk, who fluently spoke Chinese, Sanskrit, and about a dozen other European languages.

More than my meditation, which grew increasingly long until I could sit for eight hours straight with no difficulty, which alarmed the nuns. The abbess, who had positioned me right in front of her to keep an eye on me, would send them to fetch me when it was time to eat. Most newbies find it tough to sit one hour and are sure to be found in the kitchen waiting first in line for every meal.

Me (in my imagination) sitting in the snow

I was interested in the food but more interested in this newfound power of sitting still. I had just come from Chaung Yen Monastery in Upstate New York with this same teacher.

The nuns and I had to shovel powdery snow, and that couldn't wait. Or it would melt in the day's sun and refreeze at night into dense ice. I got offered more and better food, but made the faux pas of going back for seconds and thirds. It'll be brought to you for that if one simply waits.

Nothing is Impossible, because Amazon delivers

We had colorful veggies, brown rice, black rice, mushrooms, roasted seaweed, trail mix, a variety of tofus, health powders, lotus seeds, almond milk, granola, savory soups, steamy noodles, goji berries, attempts at Indian food, one five-spice curry in particular, roots and tubers like yams and turnips, exotic botanicals and spices...

I got to thinking I could grow super healthy and immune to the cold eating like this and shoveling, sitting or doing the morning qigong exercises, yoga, and developing samadhi like Bruce Lee and Shaolin masters must have developed.