Blessing From A Mahayana Priest

[camerata]

I had a somewhat hilarious encounter with a priest at a park in China recently. He didn't speak a word of English, dragged me into his dilapidated temple with a thumbs-up sign and shaking of hands, then proceeded to give me a blessing that was 20% Buddhist (splashing water on my head) and 80% yin-yang mumbo jumbo, blowing on my head, blowing on my hands, using two fingers to trace invisible symbols around me, etc. He then led me to the donation book, where I saw the minimum donation the previous day was 500 baht and the maximum 12,500. I carefully wrote "50 yuen" (250 baht) in the book with him looking over my shoulder and quickly stuffed the note in the box. He then produced a 100 yuen note and waved it in front of me. I refused to pay, since I thought 250 baht was enough for this depressing "cultural experience." Anyway, he was gracious enough to let me take his photo outside the temple. I never did find out was the Buddha image was. It looked like Amitahba, but he kept saying "Minzu. Minzu."

Any kind of sights or events seem to be expensive in China, these days.