religion
St.Valentine’s bones are in Madrid. It’s funny that so many people consider the anniversary of the beheading of a man the most romantic day of the year.
Read MoreTwenty-four-year old welder Antonio Caparrós breaks into tears while he hugs friends and relatives in a storage room with two gigantic, intricate, and beautiful statues and another few dozen sweaty men. He confesses that he has been released from a physical and emotional burden after having carried, along with another 39 men and for nearly five hours, a 1.1 ton statue of a Pieta, the depiction of a dying Jesus Christ in his mother’s arms.
Read More"Department of Halting Destruction of Living Beings - administers punishment for any act of harming living beings. (...) Upholding human value and protecting living beings form an important aspect of China's traditional morality" - says the sign beside this statue.
Along with the Imperial Palace and Tiananmen Square, one of the most famous landmarks of Beijing is the Temple of Heaven, in the southern part of town. It's in every guidebook and about every tourist that passed through the city since Marco Polo has been there.
What a lot of people don't know is that hidden in what is now the Russian shopping district lies the TEMPLE OF HELL HELl HEll Hell hell *echoes and fades just like in Fraggle Rock*
In reality, it is a Daoist temple called Dongyue, which was named after Mount Tai, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Daoism.
New and old contrast in today's Beijing. A Walmart is just across the street and about 3 Starbucks.
The place is known informally as the Temple of Hell because of it's scary statues of death and punishment.
Well, that seems like an awesome place to bring the kids, right?
School kids go on a field trip to see statues of demons killing humans and other scary stuff.
There were 76 "departments" of all sorts of sins, and then some others dedicated to paperwork, such as the "Department of Filing Forms" and the "Department of Distribution of Medication". This was the "Department of Suicides".
Some people come to worship these gods and ask for their help. They go door to door with incense and bow to the statues.
The school kids could care less about the statues. All they wanted to do was run around.
I call this one "Donnie Darko". Didn't know he was a Daoist god.
In the entrance of many temples and palaces in China, there is an elevation. Legend says this is to keep spirits from coming in. It also works with toddlers.
In the back of every single room there was what I believe is a Daoist Priest, looking over this big bureaucratic underworld. All rooms were dark, damp and humid.
Shy little girl walked past in silence. I wonder if she had a good night's sleep after this visit.
This department was of Nature's Creatures. On the left you see a ghost with a twig on his head. Now imagine him talking.
The departments are small rooms full of statues. The temple has been in this place since 1319. Apparently these statues are from 2002.
Durham, NC, fairly represented at the Dongyue Temple.
On the other side of a busy street in front of the temple is a large gate.
A group of Daoist priests were there practicing their instruments. I do have video and will edit and post them some time in the future. I think it was the first time they ever picked up an instrument... or they were actually supposed so sound like they were in hell.
And tonight when you go to sleep, remember this face. He'll take you to the other side. MUAHAHA *Vincent Price's evil laugh from Thriller*
Hidden in the Xicheng district of Beijing, right beside a huge factory chimney, is the ancient Tianning Temple. This structure was built in 1100, during the Liao Dynasty, making it 920 years old at the time of these photos, one of the oldest in town. The pagoda is solid and unlike many others of its kind it does not have stairs to take you to the top. After surviving centuries, many similar pagodas were torn down in the 20th century, like the older Qingshou Temple twin towers that were destroyed in 1954 so Chang An avenue could be expanded.
I observed many people would walk around the pagoda clockwise, while praying. Several would just walk while whispering, some would stop in front of each door and bow, and others would just be quiet in their worship.
Like many ancient and historical structures in Beijing, if you didn't know it was there, you'd miss it. The pagoda is right in the middle of a residential area and is not a very famous tourist spot.
After walking around the pagoda several times, this woman bowed a few times and finished her worship.
The octagonal pagoda, 57.8 meters tall, was erected on a square platform. The bottom of the pagoda is in the form of a huge Sumeru pedestal, decorated with carved arch patterns. At the corners there are relief sculptures of heavenly guardians accompanied by another level of carved arches. A veranda with banisters and brackets was built around the upper part of the pedestal.
The statues on the sides of the temple, although severely damaged, are believed to be original, having survived the great Tangshan earthquake of 1974 and the Cultural Revolution, when most relics of this and other temples around China were destroyed.
According to a local nun, in older times it was possible to go through the doors on the base of the pagoda, but now it's closed down because it's too dangerous. All the (not very extensive) research I have done online indicates that this structure has always been solid and the doors are decorative, but you never know.
In front of the pagoda, you can buy incense and light it as part of your worship. This one cost 15 yuan, but there are some for 25 and 35.
After lighting the incense, a woman bows facing the pagoda and prays before kneeling and bowing several more times, then heads to walk around the building.
Over the door, a statue of a Bodhisattvas survived.
Three layers of huge lotus petals carved on the pedestal support the first storey of the pagoda. On four sides of the first storey, facing the four directions, there are relief sculptures of heavenly guardians and arched gates. Above are thirteen levels of eaves, very close together, with no doors or windows. It is a typical pagoda of the Liao and Kin period. (text from china.org.cn)
Originally, in this same location there used to be another temple, built during the Sui Dynasty (589 - 618), and was considered at the time one of the most important of China. Legend says that he built 30 temples, one for each province of China, to keep relics of the Buddha. Some believe they still lie beneath the Tianning Temple to this day.
Near the entrance, there is a blocked out stair way to the underground. I wonder where that takes to. One day I will come back and have a better chat with the nuns.
