Heavenly kings
(Statue in the Lama Temple: Beijing, China)
This is the face of one of the four heavenly kings; one for each point of the compass. I don’t exactly recall which he is (perhaps East), though he differs from the other three as he is holding a musical instrument. The others generally have an umbrella, sword or a dragon with them. He towered above me as I entered the temple in Beijing – he was quite a fierce creature to encounter after bumping across China in a train earlier that day. He was our first glimpse of Beijing’s astounding attraction and he was magnificent.
Now some more trivia that Ying told me about! Interestingly, there were some modern day heavenly kings – four Cantonese singers; Jacy Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok and Leon Lai. They were all ‘canto-pop’* stars of the 1990s – not to be confused with the figures I am referring to.
*Cantonese pop music, of course.
– Today Rosie is in the UK, trying to fix her bathroom –
