Plan your Beijing tour? Visiting a buddhist temple in Beijing or other parts of China helps you understand the Chinese traditional culture and religion.
Check ou my another article How to Visit Lama Temple for more information.
Buddhist temples to Chinese are akin to churches to the western people. Very often around a temple there are plentiful street front stores selling incenses. Some itinerant incense hawks are trying to pester you into buying incense sticks. So why burn incenses?
The reasons behind the burning of incenses are manifold. One factor is that Buddha would appear in the smoke produced by burning incenses. In other words, the smoke is a soul link between worshippers and the Buddha.
Incense burning reminds people to burn themselves, to give, and to sacrifice though many people still burn for money, for love, for health and the list could be much longer.
There is a Chinese saying that goes like this: 命由己造，福由己求 which literally means “Our fate and happiness are made by ourselves, not given by the Buddha or somebody else”.
A huge incense burner is vertically placed with incense sticks burnt by worshippers
Add on
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Tip: Hassle-free Beijing Guided Tours
If you don’t want to go the do-it-yourself route and prefer the hassle-free escorted tours, here are some options for guided tours to Beijing:
Car Rental in Beijing
Beijing Day Tour
Beijing Tour Packages
Great Wall Tour
Beijing Winter Tour
Beijing Tours
China City Tours
China Tour
Further Readings
How to Plan a Trip to Beijing
Best Time to Visit Beijing
Top 10 Attractions in Beijing
Top 10 Tourist Scams Beijing
How to Visit Tiananmen Square
How to Visit Forbidden City
How to Visit Temple of Heaven
How to Visit Summer Palace
How to Visit Ming Tombs
How to Visit the Great Wall of China
How to Visit Hutongs
How to Visit Olympic Sites
Top 10 Markets in Beijing
Top 10 Shopping Malls in Beijing
Beijing Shopping
Wangfujing Snack Street
Qianmen Commercial Street
Beijing Huguosi Street
Any questions, just drop a line.
I have a question regarding incense burning in temples. Is there a traditional or common fragrance of incense burned in Buddhist temples?
I have a question, a friend of mine passed away recently and I want to continue honoring her memory. For my family we have a shrine for my grandfather and light incense but I am unsure what is proper procedure to go on lighting incense for her.