Friday, December 02, 2005

Lama Temple

On the north side of the city you can find the Lama Temple. This is an active Buddhist Temple.
This picture is from from the walkway that leads into the main buildings. It was just a beautiful day!

Near the top of the picture on the right you can see a bird with a long tail in the branches in the tree. He had a fantastic singing voice and was a pretty shade of blue.

These are the nicest trash cans I have seen to date. Very classy.

I am not sure what these are for. The large metal things have a shaft down the center and are meant to be turned by hand. There were signs at each one explaining which direction to turn it, and you could see where the metal was worn down from people's hands.

Many of the people who were praying at this temple, were burning incense. It was amazing how much of it they could go through. In front of each building, there was a flame for lighting incense and a container for the smoldering sticks. You can see a small cloud of smoke in the picture, but it is nothing compared to the amounts you inhale as you look around.

More cool lions and dragons guarding the grounds.

And this is last picture is of two doorways. You can see in the picture the bar you have to step over to enter and leave. These raised doorways are found in every old Chinese building. Ghosts and spirits abound in the world, but luckily, they can not jump. These raised entrances were to prevent the spirits from entering houses. I pretty sure that it is not related, but I must confess that almost every time I try to step over one of these things, I trip.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The large metal spinny things are prayer wheels. There are sacred texts written on scrolls inside them usually, and when you spin them, they send prayers to heaven.