A Day at Yonghegong...

The question lately has been, "Why haven't you posted anything recently?" The answer: "Life here is pretty much normal now. I doubt people want to hear about me going to the grocery store." (Actually the grocery store can be an adventure sometimes, maybe that would make a good post.) Today I decided to break out of the ordinary and go see something. My travels took me to Yonghegong Lama Temple, one of the oldest still active Buddhist temples in Beijing. It is pretty much a tourist attraction now but people do still go there to worship and pray.

Before going to the temple, I stopped off at Jin Ding Xuan, a Cantonese dim sum restaurant I have come to enjoy. Dim Sum is a southern China style of food (I am in North China) that consists of small appetizer type dishes consisting of steamed dumplings, cakes, spring rolls, soups, and noodle dishes. My lunch today was a bowl of chicken noodle soup with shrimp wontons with spring rolls on the side. This place is quite cheap as 30 yuan (about 4 dollars) got me a very filling lunch. Jin Ding Xuan literally translates to Golden Tripod Attic, although Golden Throne Attic would probably be a more appropriate translation. It is a three floor, loud restaurant with dishes clattering, and today some lady loudly auctioning art while people were dining. They are open 24 hours and since many people enjoy Dim Sum for breakfast, I guess this is kind of like China's Waffle House. In addition to the Dim Sum they have an extensive seafood menu. All the seafood is at market price so there are no prices on the menu, but if you want to know just saunter over to the live seafood tanks in the back of the restaurant where your future meal will be swimming; the prices will be on the tanks. I must go back sometime to try the baby lobster for 78 yuan. After submitting your order by a palm pilot, it will be just a few minutes wait before the Dim Sum arrives at your table steaming and hot.


Jin Ding Xuan's Dim Sum Palace

Next, it was on to Yonghegong. This temple was originally built as a palace for the prince. It was closed down for many years due to efforts to stamp out religion and superstition. The tour begins at the following gate:



After entering the gate, you arrive at the drum and bell towers. These were rang and played in the mornings 108 times for good fortune:



Later on I saw this sculpture. It represents the basic teaching of Buddhism. The middle section represents Earth, the building on the top represents heaven, and the bottom part that looks live ocean waves represents hell. To get to heaven you have to do good deeds. If you don't do enough good deeds, you end up in hell:



Throughout the temple complex there were various halls and rooms that contained statues for various Buddhas. Each Buddha represented something different, wealth, the past, the future, love, relationships etc. In each hall were worshippers kneeling before these statues burning incense and praying. I sensed a true spiritual hunger among these rooms. The final room had the largest Buddha in the world, as vouched for in the Guiness Book. I couldn't get pictures of them as they are considered holy sites and therefore photos are banned.

In conclusion, I found the practice of praying to statues very strange and sad. .

At the same time, I understand their need for something tangible. It seems in the West we think to get people to church we need to play contemporary music (which isn't contemporary at all, at best it is cheesy 90s adult contemporary), and give them coffee and cokes in the pews and everything will be alright. Out with religious symbols and old liturgies. The people of today can't understand the old hymns. I always get a little insulted when I hear that. I would much rather sing A Mighty Fortress is Our God than Shout to the Lord. I am thankful that the two contemporary churches in America I have been involved in have had a strong committment to the gospel, without that we create churches a mile wide but only an inch deep.

But why are we afraid that the spiritual will scare people away? What is wrong with religious symbols provided they are kept in the appropriate perspective? Shouldn't church look different than the rest of the world? It doesn't have to be much. For instance just this past Sunday at my church here, the pastor was preaching on the Baptism of Jesus. He placed basins of water around the worship room. Throughout worship people were encouraged to walk to a basin, place their hand in the water, and reflect on the meaning of their own baptism and committment to Christ. It was a meaningful, tangible way to drive home the point of the sermon. Why do we make such an attempt in the West to remove the spirituality out of everything?