Hall of Heavenly Kings 天王殿 at the Beijing Lama Temple 雍和宫

Entrance to the Hall of Heavenly Kings 天王殿

Entrance to the Hall of Heavenly Kings 天王殿

So here it comes, the basic layout of the lama temple or probably any other Chinese temple is that there will be hall followed by another hall and this repeats like three or four times depending on the size of the temple. The Lama Temple in Beijing is one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist temples not only in Beijing but also in China and of course in the world. I came to the first hall called the Hall of Heavenly kings 天王殿, I can tell how important this place was just by looking at the number of people here.

The Faithful Praying Outside the Hall of Heavenly Kings 天王殿

The Faithful Praying Outside the Hall of Heavenly Kings 天王殿

The people who were carrying their large joss sticks were starting to use them here and pray. Most would light yp their joss sticks and stand outside the hall and pray. I thought it was a big dangerous since some of the joss sticks were literally on fire, and not just smouldering. I was thinking of just waiting to see if anyone’s hair would catch fire because of this. There was a vessel to stick the joss sticks in and there were staff who would regularly carry it away presumably to empty it. Inside the hall was a large statue of Buddha (what else did you expect?) along with the statues of the four heavenly kings. It was forbidden to take photos inside the hall and there were usherers guiding people through the hall. It was wild and I was sure I would have been able to take a photo and not get caught.

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