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Published: March 17th 2008
"The Lama Temple is Beijing's most magnificent Buddhist temple: beautiful rooftops, stunning frescoes, magnificent decorative arches, tapestries, incredible carpentry and a great pair of Chinese lions. The most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet, the Lama Temple was converted to a lamasery in 1744 after serving as the former residence of Emperor Yong Zheng. The temple's most prized possession is its 17m-high sandalwood statue of the Maitreya Buddha in the Wanfu Pavilion. An absorbing exhibition at the rear displays numerous Tibetan items and chronicles the lineage of the Dalai Lamas" (The Lonely Planet).
The temple is pretty cool. "The Lonely Planet" did a better job describing it than I would have. Hopefully you will be able to at least get an idea of what it looks like through the pictures. I think one of the coolest parts was just to see all of the different people meditating and praying. There were different locations that are set-up for this throughout the area. I do not know the official words, so forgive me, but there is a small platform-like thing on the ground that people kneel on when they are meditating. In front of them is a small bucket on a
table where they light their incense. In front of that is a bigger barrel where people discard the incense. So, they light the incense, then pray, and then when they're done, they put the incense in the bigger barrel to let it burn out.
On the streets outside of the Lama Temple, little shops literally line the streets with stores filled with incense. All of them have some other souveniers, but literally, every shop is the same. They have a few souveniers and then tons of incense.
Also, there are many places with the grounds that you are not allowed to take pictures. So, essentially, this includes the buddhas the tapestries, etc. I'm a Brunton...I'm blame you, Dad. I have posted some pictures of the things that you are allowed to take pictures of.
The Confucian Temple:
It kind of reminds me of the Lama Temple. They are in the same part of town, but the difference is that the Lamas worship at the Lama Temple and nothing much happens at the Confucian Temple compared to it. It is still a neat thing to see. This temple also has 190 stones/slabs that record the 13 Confucian
classics, consisting of 630,000 Chinese characters (which is a lot!).
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