Chapter 1183

But the Buddhist temples scattered in Jiaohecheng.

To the left of the government office area is the temple area.

A large number of monks live here.

And between the government office area and the temple area is a straight road.

This road runs directly through the entire Jiaohecheng.

There are Buddhist pagoda buildings everywhere along both sides of the road.

And the area this road finally leads to is called the Great Buddha Temple.

Compared to the first time Emperor Ming of Han heard about Tianzhu Buddhism in the seventh year of Yongping, Tianzhu had already begun to preach in the Western Regions hundreds of years ago.

Around 260 BC, King Ashoka of the Maurya Dynasty sent Maharakkhita and Mahadeva to preach in the Western Regions, and Buddhism began to spread in the Western Regions.

Hundreds of years have passed since then.

The prevalence of Buddhism in the Western Regions far exceeds that of the Great Han.

And the slave system of the Cheshi Kingdom was also passed down from the Maurya Dynasty.

Because of the high terrain of Jiaohecheng, the rare water wells in the city are all occupied by Buddhist temples and pagodas.

On weekdays, even if the government office needs to fetch water nearby, it needs to go to the Buddhist temple.

Any major national event can only be held with the participation of temple monks.

And at this time, the King of Cheshi, A Luoye, who was frightened by the inexplicable thunder in the evening, was on his way to the Great Buddha Temple, accompanied by soldiers and attendants.

The Western Regions have little rain and few clouds, so thunder is rarely heard.

A Luoye had never seen such a thing as thunder on a sunny day.

The panicked A Luoye first thought of going to the temple to ask the temple's superior.

Not long after, accompanied by a group of attendants, A Luoye arrived at the gate of the Great Buddha Temple.

Compared to the residential areas of commoners in the city, or even government offices, or even the palace where A Luoye himself lived, the buildings of this temple were much more gorgeous.

The walls around the temple were painted in red and yellow.

The red walls surrounded the Great Buddha Temple, which occupied a very large area, and the positions similar to eaves carved on the walls were painted in bright yellow.

The two towering, thick temple gates were spliced with wood and grass materials that were extremely scarce in the Western Regions.

These board materials cut from huge logs were all transported from the Tianshan Mountains.

Except for the roofs, wooden materials were rarely seen in Jiaohecheng, but they could be seen everywhere here.

On the two huge temple gates, there were also fist-sized floating nails made of gold.

The four corners of the gate were also all inlaid with pieces of gold, with complex Sanskrit carved on them.

In front of the temple gate, there were several novices holding red whistles standing on both sides.

A Luoye, who came to the front of the Buddhist temple dressed in gorgeous silk and wearing a crown on his head, bowed to the novices in front of the gate with his hands together.

After the four little novices returned the salute, they turned and opened the four gates.

After A Luoye saluted again, he walked into the temple gate.

It was just that everyone who accompanied him, including the soldiers, waited outside the temple gate, and only A Luoye entered the temple alone.

The ground inside the temple was very flat.

The ground paved with yellowish-brown earth bricks was polished as if it were a mirror.

On both sides of the road leading to the main hall of the temple, there were eighteen Buddha statues carved in stone.

Stone and wood were scarce resources in the Western Regions.

And the huge stones that could be used for carving needed to be mined from the Tianshan Mountains.

The manpower and material resources required from mining to transporting the nearly zhang-long stone materials were immeasurable.

In the temple hall in the night, hundreds of oil lamps were lit, reflecting the entire hall, which used a lot of gold lacquer, vermilion lacquer, and statues, making it magnificent, making the gems inlaid on the expensive silk worn by A Luoye look a bit dull.

And after A Luoye arrived in the hall, he knelt in front of three Buddha statues that were eight zhang high.

"This humble king has something to ask the superior, hoping the superior can solve the confusion."

A Luoye, kneeling on the yellowish-brown futon, bowed respectfully to the Buddha statue with his hands together.

With the sound of a Buddha's name, a monk with no hair on his head, hands in a palm seal, white eyebrows, and wearing a cassock, slowly walked out from behind the Buddha statue.

A Luoye, seeing the monk, bowed again.

And the superior in the Buddhist temple, Cha Pi Ya, stood in front of A Luoye.

Before A Luoye could speak, the temple superior Cha Pi Ya squinted his eyes and said: "All fear stems from the unknown, and fear does not stem from the danger itself. Buddha says that only by realizing the root of the world can the root of fear be eliminated."

A Luoye instantly widened his eyes and asked: "Superior, this humble king heard the sound of thunder today, is it a hint from the heavens?"

"Today, the Han envoy, as well as the Wusun and Xiongnu envoys have all arrived. This humble king does not know whether to welcome the Han envoy and return to the Great Han, or welcome the Wusun envoy and return to Wusun. Please ask the superior to solve the confusion!"

PS: There are pictures of Jiaohecheng in the "Words". ===== CHAPTER 1185 =====