Lama Temple

We went for a site-seeing tour, but came back feeling more spiritual. The Lama Temple was previously a palace, but was later converted to a Lama Temple. The emperor wished to unite the country and saw this gesture as a means of doing that.

I felt that the buildings were very similar in style to those in the Forbidden City, or at least to the smaller ones. I could certainly see that it was previously a palace, which made it difficult to view as a temple. However, there were many people paying respects to Buddha by lighting incense and praying. I had been unaware that there were so many differnt Buddhas. It is really a station as well as a person.

There were many gold statues of Buddhas representing the past, present, future, healing, virtues, etc. The most impressive was a standing, golden Buddha that was 55 feet tall.

On the way home we stopped at a different park and watched some people spinning tops using two sticks with string attached. As they spun faster and faster the top would make whistling sounds. They would almost dance with the string and top. Check the video below - it was very interesting to watch. We also stopped to see ping pong players. We were invited to join, but declined because they looked too good at it. Maybe next time.

CM + NM