Lama Temple

When I woke up this morning, there was a drizzle outside and grey skies were hanging over the city. I figured this might be a good day to do some sight-seeing as most tourists and locals probably would prefer the indoor convenience of shopping malls. So I decided to head out and take a cab to the most famous Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. The Lama temple makes the list of the top 10 places to see in Beijing, so it was time to get it off my to-do-list. I had an English map with me that showed the location of the Lama temple but still the first two cab drivers I walked up to had no clue what I wanted to do. I started to feel a little desperate, even frustrated with my incapability to communicate, but decided to try one more time. The third one seemed to repeat Yonghe Gong every time I mentioned Lama Temple and I almost decided to walk inside the lobby of the apartment to ask the reception to translate for me, when it suddenly hit me; Yonghe Gong was the metro station next to the temple. So from now on, I’ll mention the name of the metro station to the cab driver to get me somewhere and walk the remaining blocks if needed.
When I arrived at the temple, I realized that lot's of people had a similar idea and the placed was quite busy with tourists and worshippers. The temple was build circa 1723 and consists of 5 main halls, each taller than the last one. Worshippers are praying with incense sticks in the hand in front of each hall, which gives the whole place its unique smell. There was a dad who seemed to be teaching his 3 year old son how to pray, it was really cute and I kept bumping into these two during the next hour or so. Needless to say they appear in many of my pictures. The highlight of the temple is a 25 meter (80 ft) high statue of a Buddha like figure. It was a present given by then Daila Lama to the emperor in 1750. It appears in the Guinness Book of Records as it is carved from a single piece of sandalwood. While the Dalai Lama lives in exile, the second head, the Panchen Lama resides in Beijing. Although the place currently hosts around a 100 monks, I didn’t see any of them. The Panchen Lama is a matter of controversy because China supports one while Tibet recognizes another.