The sweet smell of incense

Beijing isn’t as a religious city as Bangkok, but it still has a few absolutely must-see temples. We saw the two most famous ones, the Lama Temple and the Temple of Heaven.

The Lama temple is a Tibetan Buddhist temple and monastery housed in what used to be Prince Yong’s palace in the 18^th century. Therefore, its architecture is more similar to that of the Forbidden City than of a Chinese Buddhist temple. It does, however, contain Tibetan artwork and decorations. One of its highlights is an 18-meter tall statue of the Buddha (covered in gold, in case you were wondering), carved of a single piece if wood. For this reason, it’s included in the Guinness Book of Records.

The Temple of Heaven is a Taoist temple, but it wasn’t a public temple. It was the place where the imperial family prayed and hosted its private ceremonies. Like in the case of the Lama Temple, its architecture is unusual, with its round buildings and walls and three-tiered stone altar (the round shape is evocative of Heaven itself.) A long time ago, there were sacrifices being made in the temple. You can still see the cauldrons where they burned animals (and sometimes children.) Nowadays the big park around the temple is used for the practice of Tai-Chi. The afternoon we visited this temple it was raining and windy and while it didn’t affect the visit itself – apart from some dust in the eyes – it was impossible to recreate those amazing pictures of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests framed against a blue sky.