Five things not to miss
The temple runs in a single line south to north — follow the central axis and you will pass everything in turn.
1
This is the main reason people come. Inside the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses stands a Maitreya Buddha rising 18 metres above the floor — with roughly another 8 metres buried below ground — carved from a single trunk of white Tibetan sandalwood that was hauled across the mountains as a gift from Tibet in the 18th century. The statue is so tall that a three-storey pavilion had to be built around it, and it is listed in the Guinness records. Standing at its feet and looking up is the moment most visitors come away talking about.
The Lama Temple is arranged on a long central axis through a series of courtyards and five main halls. You begin at the Hall of Harmony, which holds Buddhas of the three ages, pass through the Hall of Everlasting Blessing, and end at the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses with its giant Maitreya. The clever part is that each building rises higher as you walk deeper into the complex — a deliberate design that makes you feel you are stepping closer to the sacred, one level at a time.
What sets the Lama Temple apart from a museum is that it is still very much in use — resident lamas live here, and Beijingers come every day to light incense and pray over exams, jobs and family health. At the entrance the temple hands out a free bundle of incense to every visitor, so there is no need to buy any from the sellers outside. Light it in the courtyards in front of the halls (never inside the buildings) and offer it there. On the 1st and 15th of the lunar month, and during Chinese New Year, the courtyards fill with worshippers and the smoke grows especially thick.
Look up at the rooflines and you will notice something almost no other temple in China has — yellow glazed tiles, the colour that imperial rules once reserved for buildings of the royal family alone. The reason is its history: before it was a temple, this was the residence of the Yongzheng Emperor, so when it became a lamasery in 1744, the yellow roofs stayed. Set against the bright painted timber, red columns and Tibetan-Manchu decorative beams, the Lama Temple becomes a meeting of two worlds — Chinese imperial palace and Tibetan Buddhist art under one roof.
5
Leave the Lama Temple and walk about 5 minutes along Guozijian Street to find the Temple of Confucius and the Imperial College standing side by side. This was once the empire's highest centre of Confucian learning, and the mood is the complete opposite of the Lama Temple — quiet, shaded by cypress trees centuries old, with hundreds of stone tablets carved with the names of scholars who passed the imperial civil-service exams. If the Lama Temple has worn you out with crowds, this is the calm corner most visitors overlook.