Beijing: Dragons and Other Ferocious Creatures

Tile Dragon on Forbidden City Rooftop

As I mentioned in my last post, Chinese art and architecture is full of animal symbolism. Though the most frequently portrayed animal is the dragon, other animals, both real and imaginary, appear ubiquitously at landmark locations throughout Beijing. Serving as both icons of power and protection, these animals often stand at the gates to courtyards and entrances to palaces and temples. I compiled a photo montage of some of our favorites that we "collected" during our visit.

Male Shi (guardian lion) at Lama Temple. The ball under his paw symbolizes the flower of life.  The male shi is said to guard the structure while the female shi guards the interior of a building.


        Bronze Female Shi in the Forbidden City. Female shi often appear with a baby shi under one paw. Typically, shi appear in pairs with the female on the left and the male on the right.

Bronze Elephant in the Forbidden City. The Chinese revere the elephant as a symbol of energy, strength and power. Think less Dumbo and more Indian battle elephants crashing through the woods in the movie Alexander. 

This fellow was my favorite. He's a Qilin, a mythological chimera-like creature that combines features of the dragon, ox, deer, fish and lion. The Qilin was said to be a pet of the deities and only appear in places ruled by a wise and benevolent leader. Fittingly, this Qilin was located in one of the inner courts in the Forbidden City. 

Nine Dragon Screen in the Forbidden City. This wall was one of Matt's favorites. Each dragon represents one of the nine forms of the dragon in Chinese mythology and has 117 scales (81 of positive yang essence and 36 of negative ying essence). 

Beijing: Temple of Heaven

Easily one of the most recognized sites in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven was one of our top places to visit. The Temple is one of many religious and ceremonial buildings located in a sprawling park in the middle of Beijing. It served as a center of the Taoist religion and their rites of heaven worship. Twice a year, the Ming and Qing emperors and their courts would travel to the temple from the Forbidden City to perform highly ritualized ceremonies (including animal sacrifice, fasting and prayer) and ask for the blessing of a good harvest. The smallest mistake in protocol could mean a bad omen for the coming year.

Both the art and architecture of the temples was astounding. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (pictured) is constructed completely of wood with no nails and most every feature of its design is symbolic to the ancient Chinese culture. The round shape of the temple and its midnight blue tiled roof symbolize heaven, the four inner pillars represent the four seasons and the twelve outer pillars the twelve months of the year. In the elaborate artwork, dragons and quantities of the number nine symbolize the emperor and might of the empire.

Our temple visit was relatively early in the morning, so we were treated to the sun sparkling off the tiles and gold art through the typical Beijing haze. The height and sheer size of almost every building often led us to stand heads tilted back and mouths agape before heading in for a closer view. We were also delighted to stroll through the wide, tree-lined lanes in the park and discover a double pagoda near an outcropping of rocks and massive moat surrounding the Hall of Fasting. (I wondered about its proximity to the altar where cattle was burned as a sacrifice – wouldn’t that make those fasting a bit hungry? Maybe that is why there is such an impressive moat :P).

Dragon Art inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest

Courtyard Hallway

Double Pagoda in Temple of Heaven Park

Busy Little Bee

I am amazed at how quickly time has passed in the past couple of weeks. And how busy both Matt and I have been with work, school, and life in general. I've been delaying posting much because in my organization- obsessed mind I wanted to be chronological and upload all of the China blogs in order before posting on our newer adventures, but they have proved to be a bit time consuming (and Photobucket a bit finicky), so I am trying a new approach. From now on, the China posts will be interspersed with tales of life on Okinawa.

In the last few weeks, since my return to solid foods (and sushi!), I have taken on a couple of new projects. The first is an independent study of Japanese literature for school. I'm reading works spanning the start of the Meiji era to the brink of World War II. This is a very interesting time in Japanese literary history because it marks the advent of Western influence on Japanese culture, which had maintained virtual isolation for many centuries. The second project, which has turned out to be quite delightful as well as time consuming is volunteering as a preschool teacher for the Okinawan MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). I have a class of ten two-year-olds that keep me busy on Tuesday mornings as well as throughout the week when I work on plans to incorporate lessons with crafts, games and other activities. You can be sure that some of my experiences from both of these undertakings will be making their way to these pages.

Finally, you may have seen on the news that we are having some issues on the island concerning the behavior of a few Marines. I don't feel it would be appropriate to discuss them on the blog, as there are a lot of questions still unanswered and their conduct is not representative of the majority of Americans on the island nor my experiences here thus far. Because this is so close to home, I have a lot of strong feelings about my observations on the situation and how it is playing out in the Japanese and world media. I'm recording them privately and might publish them at a later time; however, if you would like to discuss the issue with me, send me an email and I will try to answer your questions the best that I can.