Beijing: Dongyue Temple and the end of the adventure

This is it. The final day. Today, I fly home to Norway. With a little time to spare before I have to head for the airport, I choose to explore something close to my hotel, the Dongyue Temple. Also known as the Temple of the Eastern Peak. Paula had made a visit to it and told me it was a nice little temple. After my Shikoku 88 Temples Pilgrimage, there is something drawing my attention towards temples, even though I am not religious in any way.

The front gate of the Dongyue Temple.

Dongyue Temple courtyard.

Founded in 1319, this Taoist temple is dedicated to the Great Deity of the Eastern Peak. Built for offering sacrifice to gods and ancestors on a national scale. The temple also contains the Beijing Folk Custom Museum.

Prayer tablets hanging inside the temple.

The west pavilion in the temple.

Now for the real deal. The temple is nice and all that, but the real reason you should visit this temple for, is the 76 rooms depicting Taoist hell. It is all about a bureaucratic way of dealing out rewards and punishment in the afterlife, given ones virtues and wickedness through life. In each room there will be one 'minister' of the department, and several plaster statues depicting the characters of that specific department or hell.

The top part of one of the large stone tablets, inside one of the pavilions in the temple.

The Bronze wonder donkey in front of the west pavilion in the temple. The Bronze wonder donkey is the riding animal for the God Wen Chang. It is a supernatural animal, that has a head of a horse, the body of a donkey, the tail of a mule and the split hoof of a hull. By touching the animal, you will supposedly be cured of a disease, so it was customary for people to come here to touch the Bronze wonder donkey.

The list of the various departments or hells includes Department of Signing Documents, Department for Determining Individual Destiny, Department of Confiscating Unwarranted Property, Plague Performing Department, Department for Implementing Fifteen Kinds of Violent Death, Department of Raingods, Department for Demons and Monsters, Unjust Death Department, Department for Preservation of Wilderness, Department of Betrayal, Department for Bestowing Happiness, Egg Birth Department, Toxicant Department, Department for Resurrection, Department in Charge of Suffering and Distress, Department of Instant Rewards and Retribution, Department of Pity and Sympathy, Department for Accumulating Justified Wealth, Water Birth Department, Door God Department, Department for Controlling Evil Spirits, Department for Suppressing Schemes, Department for Wandering Ghosts, Flying Birds Department, Department of Petty Officials, Execution Department, Final Indictment Department, Death and Life Department.

The department of Earth Gods.

Unujust Death Department.

The Egg Birth Department for instance, is there to make sure that people do good deeds in their life. For if not, they will become flying birds of low class in their next birth, and will have to go pecking at food to be able to stay alive. Another department, the Unjust Death Department, bears the following plaque: "'Unjust death' means the kind of death caused by homicide, suicide and unexpected accidents. Taoism holds that the victim of premature-death, out of their anger over their loneliness, would intrude into homes and residences. This department is especially in charge of the souls of those unjust death cases before they work up merits". Another department, the one for demons and monsters, says that demons and monsters are kinds of devils that often harm people in the dead of night. The department controls and supervises them and forbids them to wander and bewilder people.

A red colored demon cutting off a mans tongue, a punishment for betraying your lord among other crimes.

A blue demon in one of the departments of the Taoist pantheon.

I think my favorite is the Department for Implementing Fifteen Kinds of Violent Death. The plaque reads "Taoist doctrine believes that those who commit evil deeds will fall victim of their own evil deeds as a death punishment ranging from death caused by starvation, clubbing, revengeful murder, killing in battle, or death caused by fierce animals or snakes, burning fire or flood, poisoning, outbreak of madness, falling into an abyss, tricks of an evil person or a ghost, incurable diseases and suicide".

Two of the guardians at the Dongyue Temple.

Dragon stone tablet socket.

One cannot but admire how creative the various religions around the world are when it comes to dealing out punishment. I wonder in which department I will come.

Underside of a lantern at the Dongyue Temple.

And then, it is over. My time here in Asia is over. From hiking in North Korea to sightseeing in Beijing. Now for the long flight back home. It is a good thing that memories does not put on weight in the physical world, then I fear that my adventure here will cost me a lot more.

The front gate of the Dongyue Temple with a view of the courtyard.

<- Beijing: The Forbidden City, Jingshan Park