Sixteen years of "108 Luohan Babies": The children born in ancient temples after the Wenchuan earthquake have grown up

Southern Metropolis Daily

2024-05-12 14:54Published on the official account of Guangdong Southern Metropolis Daily

May 12 is Mother's Day, and Lo Sha Sha took his son back to the Luohan Monastery again. On the stone monument erected by the release pond, there are the names of 108 children, and the names of the sons are among them. Here, he was witnessed, and his first cry was witnessed.

According to a previous report by Xinhua News Agency, in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, there was a special group of children - they were born in Shifang, the hardest-hit area, in the thousand-year-old temple Luohan Temple. The temple with strict precepts broke the taboo, practiced the mysteries of human Buddhism, received pregnant women, allowed meat to eat, and ushered in the safe arrival of 108 children.

This story has been told to this day. The children in the story, known as "Luohan Wa", are 16 years old this year. Recently, Nandu and N video reporters have interviewed many parties and traced the birth experience of this legend. Nowadays, children have long since returned to ordinary daily life, and they have also encountered more kindness as they grow up.

108 inscriptions of the birthplace of Luohan Wa.

The temple becomes a maternity ward

Every once in a while, Zhai Qiurong has to go to the Luohan Temple in Shifang City, Sichuan Province. When the sun is shining, the glow of silence spreads flat on the ground, as if to illuminate every bumpy road. The thousand-year-old temple built in the Han Dynasty is in the center of the city, and across the street is the former site of the Shifang Maternal and Child Health Hospital. Sixteen years ago, Zhai Qiurong, who served as the head of the Preventive Health Care Department here, experienced a major earthquake that he will never forget.

At 14:28 on May 12, 2008, the moment of rupture in memory arrived. Zhai Qiurong recalled to the reporter in Nandu that the window was "rattling", the wardrobe kept hitting the wall, and she was alone in the dormitory, panicked under the dresser. When the first wave of shaking ended, she rushed down from the fourth floor, and when she looked back, she saw that the inpatient and outpatient buildings, which were originally close together, were "separated and closed, separated and closed".

Patients and family members ran out of the building in panic, and the nurses grabbed one by one, staggering to avoid falling. The building was shaken out one after another, and the hospital was instantly turned into a dilapidated room, and more than 20 pregnant women urgently needed to be transferred.

The second primary school in Fangting Town, opposite, immediately opened its school gate. People who had nowhere to go around took refuge in the open dam, standing blankly on the dam. The hospital decided to place the pregnant women here first. A woman had just undergone surgery in the morning, and four medical staff carried her and stumbled down.

Zhai Qiurong didn't have time to close the door when she ran out, and she was wearing slippers and joined the transfer team. "The sun is very big, and a pregnant woman has more than 170 pounds, and her lips are dry." She remembered that Zheng Tongying, the director of the inpatient department at the time, was holding an umbrella next to her, pouring mineral water on her hands, moistening the mother's lips, and patting her face to cool down.

Pregnant women who were able to walk were also helped to the dam, and Zhai Qiurong and her colleagues brought rows of benches from the inpatient department, and the pregnant women sat down and waited under the scorching sun with everyone.

On this day, it also happened to be International Nurses Day, and Gui Fengchun, then the director of the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital, participated in the event outside. She rushed back immediately after the earthquake. The hospital building could collapse at any time, and the dam could not provide shelter from the rain and sun, so it was never a place to stay for long. It suddenly occurred to her that the Luohan Temple had bungalows and a spacious courtyard dam, so she could set up tents if necessary.

"Giving birth is to see blood, and the monks in the temple are more taboo, I don't know if they can take in our pregnant women?" Gui Fengchun recalled to the reporter that she was a little hesitant and decided to try it herself.

At this time, the Luohan Temple had already flooded into hundreds of people affected by the disaster, and the wooden bungalows of the temple were almost undamaged except for the falling tiles.

In the face of the reluctant invitation of the Maternal and Child Health Hospital, the abbot, Master Su Quan, did not hesitate at all and led the monks to open the door to welcome guests. Set up tents, set up rattan chairs and dining tables, boil water and cook, and provide all the help you can. "Seeing death and not saving is the biggest taboo, and other taboos are not important." Su Quan said.

In the afternoon, all the pregnant women were safely transferred to the Luohan Monastery. Aftershocks still hit from time to time, so Gui Fengchun and his colleagues discussed to find some rainproof fish maw and set up a tent in the open space near the temple's tea garden. The original tarpaulin covering the Mazu Buddha statue was also removed and used, and some monks and lay people objected, but Master Suquan insisted, "It is important to save people." ”

The medical staff ran back to the inpatient department, brought quilts, and spread them on the ground, so that the pregnant women had a place to rest. Zhai Qiurong and his colleagues moved chairs from the dining room and sat around the patients. In the evening, it rained heavily, and the fish maw tied to the trunk of the tree was blown over, and they had to get up and hold it with their hands.

Communication and power were interrupted, and the news of relatives was unknown, and on the first night after the earthquake, Zhai Qiurong sat in the dark all night. Many of them, she recalls, were not asleep.

At around 2 a.m., there was a groan outside the temple. The tricycle brought in a pregnant woman who was in labor, the uterine opening had been opened, the labor process was not progressing well, and the doctors judged that the operation should be performed immediately.

Right now, where can I have surgery? The pregnant woman was in critical condition, Zheng Tongying found the monk, searched around the temple, and chose a dining room that did not leak rain. Two or three dining tables were put together, some straw paper was put on them, used as a delivery bed, and a wooden stick was propped up, which was the infusion stand. The surgical kit was taken from the inpatient department and carefully sterilized, and the operation began. Someone was holding a flashlight, bringing a little light in the dimness.

On the morning of May 13, 2008, the first woman to give birth by caesarean section in Luohan Monastery after the earthquake.

At 7:36, a new life was born, the child cried loudly, and the mother and daughter were safe. "It was actually very moving to see that scene at the time." Zhai Qiurong took out his mobile phone and took a photo. The first child after the earthquake in Luohan Temple, Master Su Quan named her "Zhenwen".

On the third day, relief supplies were sent in one after another, and blue tents were erected one after another. The Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital converted the tents it received into "treatment rooms", "operating rooms", "wards" and "delivery rooms", moved examination equipment from the inpatient department and outpatient building, and the temple monks donated meditation beds for pregnant women.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, this temporary hospital was built to give new life to life.

108 "Luohan Dolls"

Shifang and Wenchuan belong to the two wings of Longmen Mountain, the border is only a few dozen kilometers away in a straight line, and nearly 6,000 people have been killed, making it one of the hardest hit areas.

Long Shasha told the reporter that she lived in the countryside of Shuangsheng Town, under the jurisdiction of Shifang City, and the main road near her was impassable under construction, and the front of her home became a necessary place to go down the mountain. In the evening, trucks came down from the mountain one after another, covered with fish maw sheeting, and "pulled the corpses".

That year, Zhang Guichang, a native of Luoshui Town, Shifang City, worked in a chemical plant and could hear a huge sound of more than 100 decibels from the ball mill in the factory every day. He told a reporter from Nandu that when the earthquake came, he was threshing rapeseed in front of his house, and his wife Yang Qiju was pregnant and was enjoying the shade in a tiled house with his mother.

Suddenly, there was a roar from the ground, and for two or three seconds, his mind went blank, as if he was getting close to the ball mill again. The roof tiles jumped, dust sprayed out instantly, and the house collapsed in one fell swoop. Zhang Guichang lay on the ground and shouted his wife's name loudly. It was only after shouting for the fifth time that there was an echo before the heart was put down.

When escaping, Yang Qiju tripped and fell, and her stomach always hurt a little. There were still more than 20 days before the due date, and seeing that the situation was not right, Zhang Guichang inquired and sent his wife to Luohan Temple. "Can Luohan Temple have children?" Yang Qiju, who was 45 years old at the time, was an elderly woman with gestational hypertension, and she was still worried when she was carried in.

The injured in the earthquake continue to be sent to the Luohan Temple, and the 85 Hospital, which came from Shanghai to help, is also stationed here. Yang Qiju's fetal disposition was difficult and her condition was difficult, and the army and doctors from the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital urgently performed a caesarean section for her.

At 17:12, the nurse came out of the tent with a baby boy in her arms, and her mother, Yang Qiju, survived the danger safely. Zhang Guichang's eyes were full of tears, and it took several seconds before he could speak. This was the eighth child born at Luohan Monastery on the fourth day after the earthquake.

Long Shasha had been doing prenatal check-ups at the Shifang Maternal and Child Health Hospital before running to Luohan Temple after the earthquake. After some psychological struggle, she also decided to give birth here. At that time, I couldn't give birth smoothly after tossing all afternoon, and I called a doctor temporarily in the evening and had a caesarean section overnight. Soon after entering the operating room, it began to rain heavily. When she came out, her family and nurses took turns to make several umbrellas and escort her back to the ward.

The next afternoon, Long Shasha came to his senses and saw his son for the first time, "Really very satisfied." When she tried to get out of bed, the slippers on the ground in the tent were gone, and she realized that they had all been gone with the rain that night.

In early summer, the temperature in the tent reaches more than 40 degrees during the day. Long Shasha couldn't stay still, and often pushed his son to cool off in the shade of the trees outside. Zhai Qiurong also remembers that during the operation, the doctor wore layers of surgical gowns and isolation gowns, and after the operation, he was soaked.

Zhang Guichang, who took his wife out of the hospital early in the morning, will come back from time to time. When the watermelons in the field were ripe, he brought some for the doctors to eat.

The Luohan Temple is responsible for everyone's daily life and food, and the people who came to take refuge in the disaster have eaten up the temple's food for a month in three days. When food is insufficient, the pregnant women eat first, and the monks eat last.

In the beginning, there was only white porridge for breakfast. Zhai Qiurong was afraid of insufficient nutrition, so she ran home on the third day after the earthquake, took two large bags of milk powder, and distributed them to the pregnant women. Later, relief materials arrived, and eggs and milk were available every day.

During the special period, the Luohan Temple once again broke the precepts and posted a notice: "It is strictly forbidden to cook fried meat except in hospitals." Zhang Guichang remembers that some people would go to restaurants outside to open meat, and some people would bring electric pots and cook some meat in the temple dining room. But not much of this was done, "and we basically all respect the masters. ”

Even in this condition, people who don't know each other rarely complain. "At that time, people think about how to spend time together safely." Zhai Qiurong said.

She has a small radio, FM 93 is the local radio station, and every day, all kinds of news come - "the whole country is concerned about the disaster area", "where the number of people have left", "what happened to some schools", ......

Only the Luohan Temple is witnessing the rebirth. Zhai Qiurong also works as a propaganda worker, and she and her colleagues first used a pen and then a computer to record the story and eagerly pass it on to the outside world.

On May 15, 2008, Gui Fengchun arranged for Zhai Qiurong and others to be responsible for the news and information release of Shifang Maternal and Child Health Hospital.

Once, when Gui Fengchun came back from the Shifang Square treatment center in the early morning, he happened to meet a nurse coming out of the tent with a baby in her arms. It was raining again the day before, and she was busy all night at the treatment point, exhausted, and the figures of the dead and wounded were still echoing in her mind.

Ignoring the vernix and blood on the child's body, she kissed from head to toe, and cried again, "That cry is the touching of the birth of a new life, and the sadness of the deceased." Gui Fengchun said.

There were also some children among the affected people in the Luohan Temple, and soon after the earthquake, Children's Day arrived. Zhai Qiurong and the secretary of the Youth League branch organized a party with the theme of "Let Life Shine".

A student from Wenchuan survived because he came to Shifang to visit relatives. Most of his classmates were killed in the earthquake. The other two children sang a song for him. There are also children playing the violin on stage, and medical staff are reciting poetry. The children spent their festival in ignorance, and on the other side of the stage, they were still performing surgery for pregnant women.

June 1st performance after the earthquake.

In August of that year, the prefabricated houses built for the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital were delivered, and the tents in the temple were removed one after another. According to Xinhua News Agency, between the earthquake and the evacuation of the maternal and child health hospital in late August, a total of 108 babies were born in the temporary delivery room at the Luohan Temple. Because there are 108 Arhat sculptures in the Luohan Temple, and the temporary delivery room is close to the Luohan Hall of the temple, this group of children was called "Luohan Baby" after the earthquake.

Seeds of mercy

That day, there were only 107 children. Someone laughed and said, "It would be nice if it was 108." Venerable Su Quan recalled to the reporter that not long after speaking, a pregnant woman came from Mianzhu, and her amniotic water had broken and she had to give birth immediately. The paramedics stopped and rushed to deliver her birth, which was the last 108th child.

In that environment, none of the 108 pregnant women were infected, and so far, Gui Fengchun and Zhai Qiurong also find it not easy, "spraying and disinfecting at least 3 times a day." ”

And the children have witnessed more kindness in their subsequent growth.

Among the 108 children, the girl Xuanxuan (pseudonym) suffered from congenital heart disease, and the boy Dongdong (pseudonym) was born with rabbit lips. In the first year after the earthquake, the "Luohan Dolls" received a donation. With the financial support, Xuan Xuan completed the operation. Dongdong was helped by the public welfare foundation and basically recovered.

Zhang Guichang named his son "Carry forward", and since birth, Xiao Hongyang has been focused by the camera. Outside the tent at the Luohan Temple, more than a dozen media outlets waited for his birth. Before the earthquake, Zhang Guichang and Yang Qiju worked as farmers and part-time workers for a living, and their daughter was in the third year of high school.

The arrival of my son was an accident, and he was found to be 4 months old and could not be induced again. Zhang Guichang even thought about giving birth to someone for adoption. The earthquake changed all that, and the moment he saw his son, he made up his mind, "No matter how hard and tired I am, I will work hard in this life and raise my child as an adult." ”

After being discharged from the hospital, Shanghai 85 Hospital sent a military tent, and Zhang Guichang set it up under a big locust tree, and the family lived for three years. When Xiao Hongyang was 3 years old, he was invited to Shanghai to celebrate his birthday, take a boat ride on the Huangpu River, play on the Bund, and have been to many places over the years.

There were volunteers in the Luohan Temple who came to help, and actor Wu Jing was among them. By chance, Long Shasha's son Fu Zihang was recognized by Wu Jing as his godson. In February last year, the movie starring Wu Jing was presented in Chengdu, and the two also met.

In the first year after the earthquake, Shifang deliberately held a weekly party for the "Luohan Baby" on their first birthday. The children come from different places and their contact information has changed, Zhai Qiurong and her colleagues drove to their homes to invite them one by one, "I am very happy to know that I have a birthday." ”

"Luohan Baby" birthday catch weekly.

Originally, Zhang Guichang was going to take his son to participate in the event in other places, but he immediately refunded the ticket and waited silently at home. This time, except for Xuanxuan, who was treated in the hospital, all 107 "Luohan Dolls" were present. Zhang Guichang excitedly woke up his son early in the morning, but when he caught Zhou, Xiao Hongyang fell asleep.

11-month-old Zihang caught a gold ingot chocolate. Long Shasha remembered that there was a couple who came from other places and had a simple face, and they gave each child a red envelope, which was 200 yuan. "No matter how much money you have, this heart is very warm, and in the first few years, you often encountered such people or things, and you will really feel cared for."

The following year, we met at the Luohan Temple. Master Suquan was holding the "Luohan Baby" in his arms, and the child was curious about his Buddhist beads and reached out to grab his glasses, the scene was witty and interesting.

Before the third anniversary, someone proposed to make a hundred clothes from the cloth on the clothes of 108 "Luohan Dolls" and give it to Venerable Su Quan, and the parents responded. The mother of a "Luohan baby" sewed a hundred clothes by herself. Long Shasha recalled that the first time Master Su Quan put it on, "he smiled happily and was very satisfied." ”

A hundred clothes in the showroom of the Luohan Temple.

This garment, considered a "supreme treasure" by Venerable Su Quan, is stored in the temple's showroom. The place where the tent was set up to give birth to "Luohan Wa" is now a release pond, and the stone monument erected by the pond has the names of 108 children. Not far away, there is also a Guanyin Pavilion for Sending Sons, and the master in the temple said, "Seeking a child is a special spirit." ”

Every May 12, the medical staff of the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital will visit the monks in Luohan Monastery and usually provide them with free physical examinations. Venerable Su Quan sighed that when he first arrived in Shifang, people on the street saw him and blurted out, "Oh, monk. "When I returned to the disaster area after the earthquake, even the children would call out "Master" when they saw the monks.

When the door of Buddhism was opened 16 years ago, the seeds of compassion had already been planted, and many pilgrims came to Luohan Temple over the years, and the good karma of 108 Luohan babies continued.

Grown up after 16 years

The last time the children met was when they were 10 years old. The stories of 108 Luohan babies were adapted into movies and brought to the screen. As archetypal characters, Gui Fengchun and Luo Hanwa went to Chengdu to attend the premiere, and someone rushed back from other places by plane. The children grew up faster than Gui Fengchun and called her "Gui Mama".

In 2018, Luo Hanwa celebrated her 10th birthday.

Long Shasha enthusiastically set up a WeChat group for everyone, and the name is "108 Luohan Baby". In recent years, groups still greet each other, but such gatherings are becoming less and less common. The children are busy with their studies, Zhang Hongyang and Fu Zihang both studied at the Shifang Foreign Chinese Middle School of the Beijing Education Group, and they just passed the high school entrance examination last year, and they successfully entered high school.

After the earthquake, Beijing provided support for Shifang's post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. These children are growing up in a new city that has been rebuilt. What remains with them may not be the painful memory of the earthquake, but the innate attention of the outside world.

The picture shows the "Luohan Baby" celebrating her birthday in Luohan Temple in 2013. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Hongjing

Lomasa never deliberately told his son the story of his birth, "Every time there was an interview at the event, he listened to it on the side. She hopes that her son will not have a sense of superiority because he is a "Luohan baby", "This is a lucky and ordinary thing." ”

Children who have entered adolescence are also sensitively avoiding attention. The identity of "Luohan Wa" has brought them some insight and opportunities, but returning to a longer period of daily life, it is no different from other children, and they will also experience the troubles of growing up.

In the first year of high school, Fu Zihang wanted to choose liberal arts, but he was a little hesitant. After giving birth to Hongyang, it was difficult to make a living from farming, and under the introduction of a Wuxi reporter, Zhang Guichang went to Jiangsu to work as a chef in a hot pot restaurant. Later, he had to return to Shifang, where his son suddenly became addicted to mobile games, and his wife couldn't help it.

"If you tell him not to fight, he will get angry easily, and that kind of emotion is really hard to accept." Zhang Guichang found a way, in the name of preparing for sports, to take his son out for a run and divert his attention, so that he could improve. Zhang Guichang is 62 years old and still working as a security guard. After coming back, my income dropped, and I usually had to pick up some paper and sell it.

This is the real life of some of the Rohan Wa families. Zhai Qiurong is also in the "108 Luohan Baby" group, according to her observation, some of the children are from the city, some are from the countryside, and they are all well-behaved and sunny, "This identity has not brought them any huge changes, in fact, it is still plain." ”

In the past two years, Zhai Qiurong and Gui Fengchun have retired successively. Gui Fengchun was rehired as an expert in the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital and is still working on the front line. Zhai Qiurong will also sort out the information and pictures of Luo Han Doll from time to time. For these 108 children, their unanimous idea is: do not dwell on the past, and grow up naturally and healthily.

Speaking of that past, Gen Su Quan did not want to talk too much about it, and he politely declined almost all interviews. He once sent a message to a reporter from Nandu, "When we have realized the beauty and planted the good roots, the initial origin has passed without a trace." Believe that it is all cause and effect. This life is like a dream, only a false name and symbol, so it is a great blessing and happiness to come to this world of sampa and be able to do some small things for others. ”

Gen Suquan and the children.

Neither Long Shasha nor Zhang Guichang lost their loved ones in the disaster, but the earthquake became the background of life forever. Originally a piano teacher, Lomasa gave birth to twin sons the year before last. In her free time, she helps out at the Shifang Nursing Home and dances for children in special education schools.

Zhai Qiurong feels that his whole life will be related to Luohan Baby, "Watching them be born, grow up, get married, and even their children are born, our hospital will always be their cradle." ”

She also hopes to have the opportunity to organize another coming-of-age ceremony, where the children will reach the age of 18 and come to the Luohan Temple one by one, as they did when they were born, bringing joy and hope to the world.

Producer: Nandu Instant

Written by: Nandu reporter Zhang Linfei

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