After the Spring Festival holiday, Xiangqin returned to Shanghai to attend a party, and everyone present was a bracelet from the Jade Buddha Temple except her. Most of the sisters participated in this excitement with the idea of drawing a good color. Xiangqin thought, it's time to go to the Jade Buddha Temple.
Hand string at the party / Photo courtesy of interviewee
According to Ctrip's data, the number of ticket orders for temple-related scenic spots has increased by 310% year-on-year since the beginning of this year. Since February, the post-90s and post-00s account for nearly 50% of the people who have booked tickets. Assuming that most young people have jobs or studies, the popular time for them to visit temples is naturally weekends. Taking the data of a weekend in mid-February as an example, the average daily order volume of tickets for temple-related scenic spots increased by 150% compared with the average number of weekday orders last week. For comparison, taking theme parks as an example, the average daily order volume of relevant scenic spot tickets last weekend increased by 75% compared with the average daily order volume last week.
Disney may still be the happiest place in the world, but it can't fully soothe this young generation. Anxiety or a better place to go – as that internet meme said, "Between work and school, you chose to be incense; Between asking for people and asking for yourself, you choose to seek Buddhahood. ”
Young people are lining up to ask for bracelet, what to buy on the spot
Xiangqin went to the Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple at ten o'clock that morning, and although it was not a pious time point of view, it was already earlier than her usual arrival at the office. The queue waiting to enter the temple lined up almost a full circle around the four outer walls, and when they entered the temple, they saw a bustling crowd - every bodhisattva had to queue up to see.
Although the scene is full of people, if it is true, the Jade Buddha Temple is not ranked among the national Internet celebrity temples.
According to Ctrip's data, from the perspective of search popularity, the temple scenic spots with high attention in recent years are: Lingyin Temple, Putuoshan Scenic Area, Hanshan Temple, Lama Temple, Foguang Temple, White Horse Temple, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Jiming Temple, Shaolin Temple, and Potala Palace. In 2023, burning incense and worshipping Buddha bracelets has become a new tourism project and stress relief experience for young people. Once you reveal the slightest idea of wanting to step into the temple, the algorithm will even intimately tell you the "fist business" and "star product" of each temple.
Screenshot of Little Red Book
For example, the Lama Palace gave birth to two emperors, Yongzheng and Qianlong, so it is especially suitable for seeking future careers; Nanjing Jiming Temple because of the phrase "female known as chicken song" in the verse, legend has it that marriage is very spiritual; When the name of Chengdu Wenshu Monastery is seen, it is a blessed place for the editors of the public entrance examination.
As for the blessing objects that have become popular in recent months, according to NetEase statistics, the most popular are the Faxi Temple amulet (sachet), the eighteen seeds of Lingyin Temple and the Lama Palace incense ash glazed bracelet. Of course, the Jade Buddha Temple bracelet that Xiangqin wants to invite has also been very popular on the Internet recently, and she can always see it when she brushes the Little Red Book during the Spring Festival. Although before that, Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple is better known as "double mushroom noodles", which is known as the best of the magic capital noodles.
Because of the large number of people, Xiangqin simply circled around the temple, and then went directly to the handskewer shop near the exit (in fact, this place should be called "Law Logistics Pass"). There are queues to enter the hallway, and the promenade in front of the gate is full of people, mostly young men and women. And when I entered the house, I couldn't get through, and almost every step I took had to say "sorry to bother me."
It's not that this young man has never seen the bracelet, how can there be such a grand occasion? Xiangqin herself analyzed that she felt that the temple may have hired a designer this year, and the bracelets are really good-looking; And their names are also very suitable for blessings and Internet communication, such as "perfect and perfect", "overnight rich", "full wallet" and so on are all hits.
Image source network
In the small room, there will be several staff members in the middle of the counter to help pilgrims with hand skewers, and on the day Xiangqin went, almost everyone on the scene asked if there was "perfect", but most of the styles were already sold out. "Except for people like me, who care about the price, everyone has something to buy, for fear that they won't be able to buy it." Xiangqin said, "An ordinary bracelet 198, looking at the average price of 300", considering the inflated price and the feeling when wearing and tapping on the computer every day, she finally gave up "please" a bracelet. Although the "please" on the spot is actually only Alipay payment.
Xiangqin's friends generally feel that the price of the bracelet is inflated, but at the same time, they believe that this kind of thing cannot be considered from the perspective of cost - "this is an expectation of a better life, and it is to pay for the future life".
Probably the Buddha heard the blessing of the letter girl, and the friend who lined up with Xiangqin bought the last "perfect and perfect", "There was no originally, that one should have been temporarily returned, she belonged to the leakage."
Some people kneel in front of the Temple of Wealth, but most adults want everything
In the interview, Xiangqin mentioned that she remembered that the "broken silver" of 880 yuan in the Lama Temple was also very popular, "I feel that everyone prefers to seek wealth this year." Her feelings are not wrong, NetEase counted 468 consumption data, and found that 47% of the purchases were "multi-golden" models - what contemporary young people are most concerned about is not being seen by the true son/daughter, but whether they can be noticed by the God of Wealth.
On the Little Red Book, a post that "the Hall of Marriage does not say a word, His Highness the God of Wealth cannot kneel" has been liked more than 30,000 times, and the comment even reads "Elder Qiyue tied me to the God of Wealth". The young people spoke generously about the thirst for glory and wealth, and the bodhisattvas heard it clearly.
Screenshot of Little Red Book
The bodhisattva probably also listened to a lot of prayers about the preparation of the public entrance examination, and no matter which attraction he went to this year, the red prayer slip said "go ashore" nine times out of ten.
Watermelon went to Hangzhou Jingci Temple on the weekend of early March, the temple with the Nanping Evening Bell. After praying each hall, he took out his mobile phone to swipe the circle of friends, and just happened to see a new status. It was a friend who had experienced the official examination, teaching qualification, and editing examination for three consecutive years, and he dreamed that he did not fill out the answer card in the examination room, and he woke up in a cold sweat, and this year was already his backwater.
Watermelon shook his head, quickly returned to the main hall to worship for him, and donated a "wisdom tile" for 60 yuan when he left the temple - hoping that it could really bring wisdom to friends.
In addition to helping friends pray in front of the Buddha like watermelons, there are also many people on social networking sites who "invite" Dharma objects for others. They usually live in the local area, will go to the temple to ask for certain legal objects as needed, and some people will directly open a live broadcast, netizens can directly choose in the live broadcast room, and those hand strings have basically been opened. There are original versions here, as well as on-demand customizations, and different beads or accessories will be woven together on demand.
When writing this article, the Blue Whale reporter listened to the live broadcast invited by a certain Yonghe Gong Hand as a background sound. Please say that all the bracelets are invited from the palace and can be stacked, except for the new two singles can be discounted by 20 yuan. In the shopping cart, in addition to the label of the Lama Temple in the product name, there is also the word of the same style of a certain star, which is also "double debuff" from a certain point of view.
There were 2,000 views in the live broadcast room, but at one point no one interacted. Please say: "Some babies don't ask or buy, stay from beginning to end, are they learning in the live broadcast room?" "Maybe they, like the reporter, think that if they listen to the live broadcast of Yonghe Gong Tekei, the reading volume of this article may be better."
After a while, someone finally asked in the barrage: Is there a "perfect and perfect"?
Interestingly, the Lama Temple originally did not have a "perfect" bracelet, and only provided five colors of solid incense ash glazed strings. If you want to buy perfectly, you have to find someone to put it together or buy an adaptation here - as the saying goes, "children make choices, adults want everything".
Buddha is very busy, can my request for not report my ID be heard?
Before "burning incense and worshiping Buddha balls and asking for hand strings" became a new trend among young people, entering the pure land of Buddha Gate was still a relatively solemn and serious matter. However, some people will deliberately search for relevant Buddha ritual strategies before entering the temple, and after buying a bracelet, they strictly wear it on their left hand.
Watermelon mentioned that on the day he visited the temple, many people were lining up to "bathe the Buddha", that is, taking a long bamboo spoon to scoop three scoops of water, pouring it on the head of the bronze statue, and making a wish in their hearts. Watermelon saw a boy accidentally knock a spoon on the head of the Buddha statue and knocked it three times in succession. He couldn't help but laugh, "Buddha probably won't bless him."
Photo courtesy of interviewee
But Buddha himself didn't seem to care much about these secular rituals, and the temples became interesting. Netizen Xiao K noticed that in a temple in her hometown of Jinhua, there was even a sign with the slogan "Buddha statues can be photographed", and there were also "rest assured" and "bold" written on both sides. Perhaps as long as the mind is religious, regardless of the rules of worship of the Buddha, the knowledge mastered, and the amount of salary, this person can be blessed by the Buddha.
But Xiangqin, who also made a wish in front of the Buddha, still feels, "Buddha is very busy, and my needs may be missed." In fact, if Buddha couldn't keep busy, there were baristas and lawyers in the temple; There are also electronic wooden fish and cyber mechanical Buddha on the Internet.
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In the city, coffee is a life-sustaining medicine for migrant workers; With the rise of the temple craze, coffee shops also opened into the temple. The "Cibei Coffee" at Hangzhou's Yongfu Temple once attracted many young people to check in, where the American style was called "Di Fu", the latte was called "Stop Snow", and the matcha latte was called "Listen to the Mountain Language". The temple's cultural and creative work has also become more and more varied, and the canvas bag of Faxi Temple reads "My Buddha should like you as much as possible" and "Urgent and anxious, doomed to get rid of a single day".
Nanjing Jiming Temple is also very creative in this regard, in addition to the main hall dedicated to the bodhisattva, it also has a legal consultation room, a psychological consultation room and a library. When young people enter the temple gate, they can go to the temple to worship, or they can turn right directly to consult a lawyer. Some netizens speculated, "The general logic should be that the problem that the law cannot solve is solved by the Buddha, and if the Buddha cannot solve it, then go out and drink a cup of milk tea." This is probably the root cause of the rise of the temple craze, and young people tell the Buddha about the anxieties that cannot be solved in real life.
Xiangqin ordered a cup of coffee at the temple before leaving, but the taste was average; She planned to take a look at the cheaper bracelet in 1688 or Pinduoduo, but then thought about it and felt that people would win the day, or they had to work their own.
Little K uploaded a photo she had taken at her hometown temple, and a sign at the entrance of the temple read, "Please go to the surrounding temples to worship the Buddha, don't come to this temple frequently."
As Sun Wukong said to the Tang monk in "Journey to the West": "As long as you see the nature of the Zhicheng and think of looking back, it is the Spirit Mountain." Compared with the Internet celebrity check-in point, she feels that although it is a little decayed, it is more comfortable, and she also photographed many plants in the temple, which are strange and full of life.
Photo courtesy of interviewee