The Lama Temple (YongHeGong)

On Saturday Erik, Sarah and I visited the Lama Temple in Beijing. It's Tibetan, and contains a 26-meter high Buddha carved from a single tree. The building which houses it had to be built up around it. It' s large and impressive and a tiny bit dusty. No pictures allowed inside the buildings, though. But there were plenty of neat pictures to take outside, of people offering incense and the nifty architecture. Erik explained the major characteristics of the Mahayana, Theravada and Zen Buddhist belief systems.