Zackory - a fateful touch (Vol. 2) ✅

Chapter 37

When Zack entered the first temple – the Shakyamuni temple – representing the Buddha of the present, he was greeted by a colorful spectacle. In front of him stretched a single small rectangular room, supported by four columns in the room. The columns shone in a bright carmine red. Golden decoration in the form of transverse hanging eyes on chains meandered along the upper third to the ceiling and ended in a column arch. This was decorated with a colorful floral pattern, in the middle of which a yellow tiger roared. Beams ran along the ceilings, which were also covered with colorful floral patterns that transitioned into a sky-like ceiling. The walls were grass green and a pattern of yellow cranes stretched over them. In the middle on the left wall was a large golden altar.

The fire-gilded Shakyamuni Buddha statue was enthroned on it. He sat upright cross-legged, with his right hand hanging over his right shin, while his left hand rested on his left thigh with his palm facing upwards. The narrowly cut face with the elongated ears that almost touched his shoulders and the black hair, which consisted of numerous balls and converged into a knot on the top of the head, looked stoically forward. The eyes were closed and a slight smile appeared.

The Buddha wore a ti-cîvara, the traditional robe of Buddhist monks, which consisted of three parts: the sanghâti (upper garment), the uttarâsanga (robe) and the antaravâsaka (lower garment). Both arms and part of the right chest were free, as the robe ran below the right armpit and over the left shoulder.

On the wall opposite the Buddha hung a painting depicting half of the mountain on which this temple stood. It was stunning. The sight was the one you could catch from below from the mountain. The mountain was surrounded by clouds of fog and the sun shone dimly from the background, so Zack suspected that it had been drawn in the early morning hours.

But somehow it looked incomplete. Maybe it was because only the left half was portrayed. After looking around, he left the temple and walked to the right across the bridge to the opposite plateau. He entered the second temple - the Maitreya Temple, dedicated to the future Buddha, Shakyamuni's successor, which represented the future.

Astonished, he stopped. In front of him, the exact mirror image extended to the previous temple. It was all identical, just mirrored. The altar was now on the right side of the room. The equivalent painting with the right part of Fanjingshan Mountain and Maitreya Temple hung opposite this altar. The only difference was the Buddha statue. This wasn't the slender Shakyamuni statue, but that of the Maitreya Buddha. This was also fire-gilded and had the same height. But it wasn't the slender, but the full-bodied Buddha with the bald head. His right leg was erect next to his large abdomen and his right hand rested on his knee. His left leg lay in front of his stomach and his left hand rested on his left thigh. His full face was warped to a radiant laugh, with his eyes also closed.

But something was completely wrong. The head of this Buddha pointed diagonally to the left, so that the visitors at the entrance looked into his face. Buddha statues always looked forward. In addition, this had another meaning. The temples were designed mirror-inverted, so the Buddhas looked at each other in a way, as they sat exactly opposite each other if you thought away the walls. The present looked at the future and the future at the present. The fact that it even looked a little to the side didn't fit at all into the image that these twin stamps conveyed.

Carefully, Zack went to the altar and climbed three steps to be at the same height as the head of the Buddha statue. Carefully, he placed both hands on the side of the head of the statue and tried to turn his head. This moved surprisingly easily. When the head had reached the position in which it was now looking straight ahead, Zack heard a clicking sound.

The picture opposite became transparent and opened a way – a barrier. With a smile, he cut off a strand of his hair and attached it to the back of the Buddha statue. Then he turned his head back to the original position and ran quickly through the entrance, which slowly closed again.