Today we went to see the Lama temple. Lama is a branch of Buddhism. This temple is North of the city center and was originally a palace for prince Yong of the Qing dynasty (princes did not live in the Forbidden City -- they lived in their own palaces but served in the Beijing court). As emperor, the prince converted this palace to the Buddhist temple that it is now. Like the Forbidden City, the temple has an axis of symmetry. When entering, there are two towers on the sides: the Eastern one is the bell tower and the Western one is the drum tower.
After entering, one hits a series of mini temples each with their own set of Buddha statues. The first one has three three presences of Buddha and going from left to right, they are the Buddha of the past, present and future (kind of like the three ghosts from A Christmas Carol -- funny how different cultures can come up with similar concepts). This mini temple was lined on the sides with 18 statues of Arhats (nine on each side, I'm not sure what they actually are).
There were also temples off on the side with statues of Kings (like Buddha angels) such as those of Hell, health and one of wealth. There was someone ardently praying by the King of Wealth.
One mini temple on the axis of symmetry was a study where active monks would sit to dispute and discuss their religion. At the center was a pretty big golden Buddha.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside of any of the central buildings, but eventually I gathered up the courage to sneak several shameless photos because we came across the last temple containing a 60-foot Buddha:
Incense was burning everywhere and people came here to pray and brought more incense which they burned as they prayed. It is believed that the spirits of the Lords and Kings ("Buddha Angels") reside in the burning of the incense.
I found a lot of things in this temple to remind me of Indian culture. This makes sense as the Buddhist religion spread North to China from India and must have dragged with it certain Indian cultural aspects.
Another really interesting thing was the written text in this temple. It was written in four languages: Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchurian, and Han. The Manchurian, Han and Mongolian are present because these were the ruling cultures in China (their symbols were also heavily present in the Forbidden City), and Tibetan is present because Lama Buddhism (specifically Lama) came to China through Tibet.
Note the four languages on the blue tablet above me.
Me at the entrance.
The street outside the temple had a gate to a street of hutongs. Originally, this is where students took their entrance exams for universities.
Now monks-to-be also study to pass the exams required to become a monk in a temple. Monkhood is a rather desireable position, even though monks cannot get married, and there is a lot of competition to get into the better temples such as the Lama temple.
The street outside the temple.
A hutong.
By the entrane to the temple is a shop. This is to be expected, as the tourist souvenir business here is very busy. However, this shop is more than that. Every object in the shop was blessed by a monk from this temple. Therefore if you believe in these things, this is quite the souvenir shop.
On this street, we stopped by a tea shop called Wu Yu Tai. Founded in 1887, it turns out that this is the oldest tea shop in China existing today! Now it is a chain and I am excited to try out the tea!
After the tea shop, we went to the third market: the Pearl Market. I wanted to get decorative souvenirs, and besides pearls, this market is known for it's souvenir goods. Cece's mother joined us there and I am very grateful that she did. Although Cece is good at bargaining, as I learned the other day, her mother proves that it is an art. She's known one seller for a long time, so we went directly to him and I got an incredible price on what I got. Cece's mother did not even have to talk much. It was as though her sheer presence was enough to not only get great prices, but also a royal treatment.
I am afraid of going back to the States and looking through stores there. I might start bargaining at Trader Joe's and Macy's.
After that we went home for a break and our ambitious plans of maybe going to a Chinese Hooters (neither of us had been to a Hooters in America and we're both very curious how they would pull it off in China ...) fell through when I passed out for several hours on my bed. Oh well. It's been a big day.
Cheers,
Nina.
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