Day 22 (1 August 2014) Forbidden City and Lama Temple

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Friday started painfully when I kicked a door with my bare toes and we watched my poor toe turning a beautiful shade of black! That'll teach me not to shift things with my feet but to bend down and pick things up!

At 9am we were supposed to be collected but Richard and Cheng were a bit late. This was because there was a road traffic accident. We were amazed that this wasn't a regular occurrence.

We drove into town to see the Forbidden City. This is a Ming section of the city and the outsides of all the ordinary buildings are grey. All of the buildings are single storey. The Forbidden City is the nickname given to the imperial palace area by the people of Beijing as it was forbidden to the average (and not so average) man in the street. Only the royals and invited (most wealthy and influential) guests could enter. The Forbidden City covers 720,000 square meters.

The old city of Beijing was made up of four "boxes"; the city, the inner city, the imperial city and the royal city. The Forbidden City is the imperial city and the royal city. We entered by the East Gate and were able to see the walls which are 10 meters high. Surrounding the walls is the moat which is 50 meters wide and 4 meters deep. The outer part of the city was home to 4000 soldiers and 3000 servants.

The city was started in 1404 by the 3rd emperor of the Ming dynasty who was born Zhu Di but who took the name Yung-lo in 1406. Until 1924 no member of tHe public was allowed to enter the city.

The buildings are designed on the Dhaoist principles of the Heavenly Temple. It was thought that the gods lived in a heavenly palace of 10,000 rooms so in deference this imperial palace only has 9,999 rooms.

There are nine layers to the city. One enters through one of five gates. The emperor always went through the middle gate, his wife, concubines and children through the gate on the right, and his counsellors and advisors through the gate on the left. Then they crossed five bridges into the inner city. The outer city housed the barracks and servants' quarters. The number five (as in 5 gates) represents the five elements : gold (metals), earth, wind, fire and wood.

We got as far as the bridges and noticed that we were being followed by a family of three generations. They told Richard that they were from the south of China where they rarely saw westerners and wanted to take photos with us. So I had my photo taken with grandma and the granddaughter and Don had his taken with son and grandson.

We walked through the quarters of the concubines and the empress and the emperor. Unfortunately one can only see some of the insides through glass. The rooms are closed to the public.

In 1911 after the revolution the last emperor, Piyu (emperor Xuantong) was allowed to remain in the palace but was restricted to certain areas. As a teenager he decided that he wanted his power back and sought the help of Japan. In 1924 he was removed from the palace and went to Japan where he was used as a puppet for the Japanese government. (Now we ought to watch the film "The Last Emperor" just to see how they portray things.)

The outer court contains the Greater Harmony Hall. It was thought that if there was a harmonious relationship with the gods there would be a plentiful food and greater harmony with the people.

Whilst Don and Richard climbed up all the steps I went off to find the loo. There was no queue for the western style loo. When I came out a little old Chinese lady tried to rush in. She took one look at the loo, screamed a cry of horror and rushed out. This was the complete opposite reaction to me finding a Chinese loo!

The Middle Harmony Hall or Preparation Hall was where the senior government officials met.

The inner court was the domain of the concubines. The outside walls are decorated with the mandarin duck whichever represents faithfulness in love.

The central section was for the emperor. The emperor's bed and couches looked incredibly uncomfortable. He would sit cross legged on the couches as they were heated underneath and the heat would rise and warm his backside.

There were also jewels which he gave to his favourite concubines. The ladies were the power makers - those who had sons were high ranked and there was a lot of plotting to ensure that one son ranked over another one.

The last emperor, Piyu was chosen by the Dowager Empress, Cixi. She had had one son but he had died aged 19. Piyu was 3 when he came to the throne as emperor Xuantong. He was 6 when the monarchy was overthrown.

We also visited the emperor's private gardens which were originally watered by a canal irrigation system.

From there we went to a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant which was buffet style - eat as much as you like for about £6 or $10.

Then to the Buddhist Lama temple. This is a beautifully decorated series of temples in a very quiet and peaceful garden setting.

Buddhism came to China from India in the 4th century BCE and was adopted by the Han Chinese.

The word Buddha is like the Taoist superior monk. In the first hall we saw the Happiness Buddha which was made in 914. On either side are the four heavenly kings each bearing a different symbol : a musical instrument to turn away evil and escort in good; a sword to kill evil; an umbrella to avoid flooding from the sky; and a snake which represents evil. In the courtyard were the ovens for the incense burning and these were made in 1750.

The third emperor, Xenon Qing Log gave the temple to the Dalai Lama.

The Buddhist philosophy is similar to Taoism in that there are 18 layers between heaven and hell and the sculpture outside the second temple represents this. This was made in 1540.

Inside this second temple are three images of Buddha, the middle one being Sakyamuni. In the Tao temples he is accompanied by 16 lower monks, 8 on either side of the temple, but being in China where 9 is the super number he is accompanied by nine. There are great oaks on either side of the temple. Each of the three larger statues are holding containers of Chinese herbal medicine. There is a belief that when we are born, we are born with two defects - one mental and one physical. These medicines cure all the defects.

The main temple is used as a lecture room. The Temple area is a school for monks and at one end of the compound are the dormitories.

Then we had the political debate as to why Tibet is a "problem" for China. This was too complicated to fully understand, but demonstrates that there is always another side to every story. All I can say is that in the lecture hall are chairs for when the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama come to visit. There is a controversy about who the Panchen Lama is today due to divergent lines.

The final hall we visited had a sculpture of Buddha which is 26 meters high. It is carved out of one tall tree. It was a gift from the 7th Dalai Lama. It is a most amazing statue, and listed in the Guinness book of world records.

We came back to the hotel to get ready for Shabbat. We crossed a main road, very warily, to get to the Chabad House. We can honestly say that it was quite different from usual. The Friday night service was "tuneful" except which or whose tunes we were supposed to be following we are not sure. The rabbi leading the service sped through so fast I think he may have been hungry! We did meet two nice Israelis from Modi'in. The whole thing lacked much of the usual Chabad experience.

With the onset of Shabbat we took a well needed rest break from our touring. We had an early night and caught up on our sleep,

NOTE: Scroll down to see more pictures of the Forbidden City and Lama Temple than fit around the text.

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