The Lama Temple

The beautiful Archway leading to the Imperial way.

After our relaxing lunch in the Hutong, we retraced our steps to the main road and entered the lovely Lama Temple.

Entering the Temple.

Worshippers preparing to pray.

Alice outside the East Tablet Pavilion.

The Yonghe Lamasery, commonly know as the Lama Temple or the Palace of Peace and Harmony is a working Buddhist monastery. It was built in 1694 and is one of the largest Tibetan Monasteries in the world. It is set in 16 acres of parkland and the Temple is approached by The Imperial Way, a tree lined walk, which was lovely and cool.

The Bell Tower in the first courtyard.

One of a pair of fantastic lions.

As it is a working monastery there were a lot of people praying as well as large numbers of tourists. Worshippers are given or buy bunches of incense sticks, which they take to whichever Hall holds the Buddha they would like to pray to. Prayers are said outside the building and again inside and the worshippers leave a number of the incense sticks in front of the altars for the monks to light. As is is a working monastery photos inside the buildings were not allowed, although if you Google the Lama Temple there are plenty of photos to be found of the interiors.

One of a pair of lions flanked by turtles, the other matching statue was under renovation.

There are five courtyards in all, with central and side halls, most of them containing one or more Buddha statues. The whole site is beautifully looked after and very ornate, but that was just how it should be to me. Although there were a lot of tourists, the overall feeling was of peace and calm, with large courtyards, and shady cypress trees.

Courtyards filled with the smell of incense.

The old with the new in the background.

This is a beautiful place to visit, serene and scented with incense throughout the whole site. The buildings are as beautiful as any I have seen in China, the 18 metre high statue of Maitreya, reputedly carved from a single piece of sandalwood, which is situated in the Wanfuge Pavilion is quite simply a jaw dropping sight! When I saw it I just said WOW. The building must have been built around this statue, it is just an amazing sight.

Wangfuge Pavilion, home of the Meitraya Buddha statue.

As you can see the whole site is beautiful, I especially like the roofs of the buildings, they make for amazing photos. Also you might have noticed the beautiful blue sky when we arrived, sadly it soon changed the uniform grey that is usual in Beijing. It was still extremely hot but we walked a little bit and sat a little bit just soaking up the atmosphere

One of the animals has lost his head

Gold, green and grey roof animals

Here be dragons!

A young lady preparing to enter one of the halls to pray to the Buddha.

Beautiful courtyards

And finally for those of you that remember the dragon rubbish bin from my last visit, here is another gorgeous way to dispose of your rubbish!!

Aren’t they lovely?

We had had a very busy day but it was not over just yet. After leaving the temple we went to another, very busy and popular Hutong which was full of shops, gift shops, shoe shops and food shops. I had to buy a beautiful pair of embroidered shoes, as my feet by now were very sore and my shoes were rubbing! We sat on a wall in the Hutong, drinking an ice cold bubble tea (yummy!) and watching the world go by. We ended the day by going to a beautiful restaurant which served Yunnan food. A lovely day

People watching in the Hutong.

In the Restaurant.

Hutong Lunch

Looking at The Lama Temple from the Hutong, more about the Temple in my next blog.

Strolling along the Hutong.

After such a lovely day at the Ming Tombs, we decided to go to the Lama Temple the next day, we also had a few other things on the agenda like present buying, so we decided that, after a fairly late start to the day, we ought to go for lunch first. Alice knew of a Hutong with a lovely restaurant right next to the temple so off we went. A Hutong is the name for a narrow street, lined with traditional Courtyard Houses. Courtyard houses are as they sound, there were four houses built in a square with a courtyard in the centre. The entrances to these courtyard houses are often very beautiful and highly decorated gateways.

Beautifully decorated entrances to the Courtyard Houses

Another example of a Courtyard doorway

Once again it was a very hot day, and we wondered down the Hutong, taking in the sights. We found the Restaurant Alice had spoken about but unfortunately it was closed. Alice knew there was a restaurant selling Western food further down the Hutong, so we decided to go there instead. I was of course taking photos as we went, and I saw this:

I did my usual ‘Ooooh that is pretty’ to which Alice replied ‘Good because this is our restaurant!’

We entered into a beautiful tree shaded courtyard, laid out with tables and chairs, and even better we were the only ones there. The four buildings surrounded the courtyard and they were all part of the Restaurant.

We made ourselves at home in the shade under the trees, ordered our food and iced drinks and just soaked up the atmosphere, which was just so relaxing.

Looking through the restaurant to the Hutong.

Of course I had a wander around and took photos, on the bar counter I found this little lovely little Cockatiel, enjoying a bit of fresh air in the shade.

He was beautiful, but the owner told Alice that he bit, so we didn’t get too close!

Above one of the buildings was a roof terrace, so I had to go and have a look.

The pretty little rooftop terrace

Looking over the rooftops from the terrace.

Alice sitting in the courtyard below.

Fruit on the trees, but I have no idea what it was!

The food was excellent, I had a lovely freshly baked pizza and Alice had an amazing salmon dish.

This was a beautiful place to have lunch, and we left well fed to go and visit The Lama Temple, which will be my next blog.