Manchurian Books

You first enter a large fore-
court, at the extremity of which a colossal gateway leads into the
inner courts. Under the archway of this portico are two War Gods,
each eighteen feet high, in menacing attitudes, and with horribly
distorted features. They are placed there to prevent evil spirits
from entering. A second similar portico, under which are the four
Celestial Kings, leads into the inmost court, where the principal
temple is situated. The interior of the temple is 100 feet in
length, and 100 feet in breadth. The flat roof, from which hang a
number of glass chandeliers, lamps, artificial flowers, and silk
ribbons, is supported upon several rows of wooden pillars, while the
multitude of statues, altars, flower-pots, censers, candelabra,
candlesticks, and other ornaments, involuntarily suggest to the mind
of the spectator the decoration of a Roman Catholic church.
In the foreground are three altars, and behind these three statues,
representing the God Buddha in three different aspects: the past,
the present, and the future.


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