Lama Temple. Beijing.

The Lama Temple. From the guidebook: Beijing's most spectacular place of worship is also the most famous Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. It has five main halls each taller than the last, as well as some stunning statuary. The path through the Lama temple proceeds from south to north -- from earth to heaven."

The monks at the Lama Temple are of the same Yellow Hat sect as the Dalai Lama -- however, in China they are forced to reject Tibetan independence.

On more thing: "While the Dalai Lama lives in exile, the second head of the sect, the Panchen Lama, resides in Beijing (at the Lama Temple). In contrast to the Dalai Lama, the Panchen recognizes Chinese authority. However, the matter of the true identity of the Panchen Lama is a matter of controversy. China supports one candidate, while the Tibetans recognize another -- only he disappeared under suspicious circumstances in 1995."

With all this history and controversy, you would have thought that the Temple would have an odd feeling to it -- instead it was gorgeous ad welcoming, filled with the smell of incense and loaded with the faithful.

We weren't sure if we should be smiling, but it was such a lovely place -- only a smile would do!

Jason and I are always keen to join in a bit of good wishes and hope for good luck. Here I am bowing the three traditional bows (for good luck) and offering my incense to Buddha. You may kneel or stand, and interestingly I had only ever seen kneeling. So I opted to kneel -- thinking it was more traditional -- actually, no. The people around me are standing because the kneeling slab is steel. I nearly burned the tops of my knees off in this picture! But I didn't -- a clear sign luck was on my side!

Jason is spinning the prayer wheel. By spinning the wheel you are sending a prayer written on the wheel to heaven! And proof that religion need not be that serious, we saw many an old woman, man, girl or boy spin the wheel as hard and as fast as they could!

And proof that religion is that serious -- the man (in the photo with the boy) is teaching the boy about the wheel and the prayer. It was a charming sight to see!