For subscribers
Chinese monks get electricity for the first time, thanks to solar
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Monks carrying out the “three steps, one bow” rite.
ST FILE PHOTO
Siobhan Wagner and Luz Ding
Follow topic:
YUNNAN, China – It takes three hours of hiking along rock stairs and muddy walkways to reach Boluo Temple in the Chinese city of Dali where, by some accounts, monks have lived since as early as the Tang Dynasty.
For more than a thousand years, devout inhabitants of the temple have practised their beliefs in the prayer hall near the mountain peak, collected water from snow-melt and sourced nearly all of their heating needs by burning fallen branches. At least until recently.
