Religious Day

Lama Temple

Woman with incense kneeling before Buddha

Today we visited two Chinese temples.  The first was the Lama Temple.  This was built in the 1600's and was one of the most important temples and monasteries for the Tibetan Buddhists.  The temple is still being used by local Buddhist's.  Siddhartha lived in 400 BC and is believed to have found enlightenment.  He is given the the name Buddha, which is Sanskrit for "enlightened one".  Buddhists follow the teachings of Buddha to reach enlightenment.  At the temple today,  people were burning incense and kneeling and bowing in front of statues of Buddha.   To me, burning incense does not seem  to be a way to enlightenment.  The Lama Temple had not very many tourists and was shaded by some over hanging trees.  Unlike the Forbidden City, people at this monastery were respectful of the amazing sight of prayer.  It was also much less crowded than the Forbidden City, and we liked it far better.

Lama Temple

Temple of Confucius

The second place we visited was  the Temple of Confucius.  Confucius lived in China in 500 BC.  He and his followers created writings which are the basics of Confucianism.  This belief states that families should treat each other with respect and even ordinary people should be respectful to each other.  In this belief there is one of the first sightings of the Golden rule, “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself."  The temple was built in 1302 It had many statues of Confucius and his followers.  We did not enjoy this temple as much, and thought it was too crowded.

Confucius

On the way home we had a filling dinner.  This consisted of meat and vegetables, and the best milk shake I have ever had!   It was the Heavenly Cantaloupe Milkshake!  I have come back to the hotel to write my blog, and go bowling!!!!!!!

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!