Despite the cold, thousands of Beijingers queued at city temples on Friday for a bowl of porridge thought to bring good luck for the coming Chinese New Year.

Guo Yanxiang, 70, waited patiently in three long queues on Friday morning to get three helpings of La Ba porridge at the Yonghe Lamasery.

"These are for my husband, my son, and me," she said.

The retired Beijing Railway Station warehouse supervisor visits either the Yonghe Lamasery or the Baiyunguan Taoist Temple on the 8th day of the 12th month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Friday, traditionally referred to as La Ba.

Lamaist monks distributed 33 woks of porridge to more than 3,000 people at the temple from 8:45am to 11am on Friday morning. At Guangji Temple, more than 40 woks were distributed from 6:30am to 8:30 am.

At both temples, monks and chefs prepared the porridge three days in advance and began cooking at midnight the previous day. This year at Yonghe the La Ba porridge contained 29 ingredients. The porridge included dried longan fruit, lotus seed, chestnut, dried raisin and sugar.

"We hope to pass on the joy of enlightenment from the Buddha to visitors to the temple, regardless of their identity and status," said Yan Jue, a supervising monk at the Guangji Temple in Xisi.

The tradition of La Ba sprang from a story about Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. Sakyamuni is said to have been so exhausted after a hard day of work and travel that he fainted by a river. A female shepherd passing by came to help, offering him a bowl of porridge made from rice, beans, wild fruit and milk. The food was so nourishing that the Indian prince, after seven days of meditation, attained enlightenment and became Buddha.

Tradition kept up

After Buddhism was introduced to China in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), eating porridge on La Ba became a custom not only in temples, but also for ordinary Chinese.

Monks and Buddhists marked La Ba at temples in Beijing, with monks chanting scriptures and conducting ceremonies.

In the past, temples and the wealthy distributed porridge to the poor on La Ba, considered by many the coldest day in winter.

But with improved living conditions, the charity aspect is no longer so prominent. A bowl of La Ba porridge is considered a blessing for Buddhists like Guo, but a novel and interesting experience for tourists and other visitors to the temples.

Liu, a 27-year-old Beijinger, ate his first bowl of La Ba porridge on Friday. Although he enjoyed the porridge, he was not aware of its significance.

This was not without reason. The Yonghe Lamasery was closed for political reasons in 1958 and reopened in 1981. The tradition of distributing La Ba porridge was only resumed in 1994, according to Li Lixiang, a staff member at the Yonghe administration.

(China Daily 01/27/2007 page1)