"Arhat Babies" to celebrate collective birthday in Shifang

This year, hardworking and simple people are busy rebuild their homes in the quake-hit areas. They expect great changes in their lives. Parents who lost their children gave birth to new lives, and these newborns not only give them hope, but also a sense of "home", which is the building block of the society.

Life has changed, but still life goes on.

In the massive earthquake of May 12 last year, Shifang Maternal & Child Health Care Hospita collapsed in a blink of an eye. The doctors had to take the pregnant women and new mothers to somewhere else. After moving twice, they finally settled at the thousand year old Arhat Temple where the spare area was relatively sufficient. In the following 3 months, 108 babies were born in the temple, and they were sweetly called "Arhat Babies". One year has passed. Are these babies, who have brought people enormous comfort during the earthquake, living happy lives?

Monks boil water for the new mothers

Originally built in the Tang Dynasty, the Arhat Temple has a very quiet surrounding, full of dignity and solemnity.

Zheng Sufang, who has lived in the Arhat Temple for over a decade, recalled the scene at the time. She led the the reporter to an eatery inside the temple and pointed at a yard of about 300 square meters in front and said, “at that time, this yard was crowded with tents, the delivery room was in this eatery, and two beds used for meditation were put together to make an obstetric delivery bed. There almost was not a single day that passed without a baby being born during that period.” Zheng told the reporter that on May 13 last year, it rained heavily at night, and to prevent the new mothers and their babies from catching a cold, the abbot of the Arhat Temple, Master Suquan, brought them the monks’ blankets and mattresses. He also had water boiled for the new mothers around the clock.

The construction site of the new Shifang Maternal & Child Health Care Hospital is located on the right side of the Arhat Temple. Zheng Sufang said that the former hospital was originally located opposite the temple. “Now the temple and the hospital are neighbors. The Arhat Babies have brought the temple and hospital much closer!”