The
Lama Temple and
Confucius Temple (including the Gouzijian School) are next to each other in central Beijing. Near there you can access some of Hutongs, including some that we visited that aren't too touristy. You can get off at the
Yonghegong stop on either Line 2 or Line 5.
We started our visit with the Lama Temple. The Lama temple is a fairly new temple, in terms of Chinese history, having been built during the Qing dynasty, initially as a home for
Eunuchs, then became the court of the who was the at the time
a prince of the most famous Qing Emperor, the
Kangxi Emperor. The Kangxi emperor was famous for being, as the second Manchu (Qing) Emperor, the first Qing Emperor to have been born in China proper. Now his son, as a prince held his court at what would become the Lama Temple. When the Kangxi Emperor died, his son placed his coffin into the Lama Temple and gave the temple the yellow Imperial tiles, which were only allowed for Imperial buildings, e.g. reserved for the emperor. Since half of the temple was reserved as a monastery, many Tibetan monks who were followers of Lama Buddhism, moved in. The Temple then became the center of Lama Buddhism in China, and still remains today thanks to protection by Joe Enlai, the famous eye-brow stylist and brother of Chinese Premier
Zhou Enlai.
Often outside of the temple you will see many Laman Monks wearing traditional headwear.
Of course every building in China needs a proper gate to protect from the
Wind-Water.
Here's someone who must be American Chinese:
Lama Buddhists love combusting stinky sticks...
It seems to be a more popular Buddhist tradition than vegetarianism:
These are turtles which are said to protect against fire, since they live in the water, obviously:
Prayer wheels can also be seen:
And some real monks!
Since it's bad luck to take photos of the Buddhas (according to my wife), I don't have any of the statues inside. There are some beautiful buildings however.
Out on the street, it's sort of a cool little neighborhood, called a Hutong:
They've got some shops, selling lots of things like incense:
Unfortunately Buddha has well-known nationalist tendencies, so is not supported by the good-hearted people of the Communist Party:
More of the tree-lined Hutong:
All the goods you need to combust at your favourite Temple:
Some delicious snacks too:
Down the block is the Confucius Temple:
Unfortunately there is no admittance for drunkards and people with mental problems:
Inside you can see a statue of old Kongzi:
And they have the names of students who passed exams on stone Steles:
They have 198 stone tablets with over 50,000 students who passed exams, plus stone tablets of the 13 Confucian Classics:
The exams were part of the Confucius system of government, in which every bureaucrat needed to pass exams to get a position in the government:
This is the imperial academy, the Gouzijian School, basically part of the Confucius Temple:
If you passed an exam at the school in Beijing, you were given a position in the gov't for life:
You would use that position to enrich yourself - the pay was very low:
But corruption was part of the deal:
Here's one of my favourite photos of China:
Here's inside the temple:
Here's the side-view:
My wife doesn't know if this should be read from left-to-right, or right-to-left, but either way she doesn't know what it means.
Call a spade a spade:
Here's Kongzi (Confucius) himself:
Nowadays, Chinese pray to Confucius when taking exams, leaving behind little red tags:
They always have beautiful roofs in China:
More of the temple:
I am the Walrus:
They also have large things to burn incense:
And a beautiful garden:
Some dragons in the yard:
And some Stone Drums:
Here's a description of the Stele and Stone Drum:
The Stele:
The Stone Drum:
An old tree that is rumored to distinguish between decent and corrupt officials by popping their hats off:
This persons hat remained.
An essential dragon stairway from the Ming dynasty:
A Teacher Should Be a Very Good Example for 10,000 Centuries (eternal):
This is in the school:
A musical instrument,
Bianzhong, used for Confucian soft jams by the students at the academy:
Lot's of pretty statues adorn the school:
You can put incense there:
Lots of dust from all the smoke:
Dragons:
And some pigs, showing some capitalist influence:
They have performances here called Da Cheng Li Yue (Big Accomplishment Etiquette Music):
Back onto the street:
You can see Chinese hipsters:
And here's a real Hutong:
Proper Chinese keep their shirt up:
Before Beijing was modernized with huge streets the neighborhoods used to be like this:
Small roads:
But you can still fit cars:
Each entrance would lead to a courtyard, shared by multiple houses:
And they also share bathrooms:
All hail the Central Country!
Fucking hipsters are everywhere...
Well, time to hitch a ride and get going!
Peace, Sauce
Follow me and I will love you forever!
