| Yong
He Gong Lamasery (1694 AD, remodeled 1723 onward)
other
sites in Beijing |
Beijing, China |
Yonghe
Gong is a Tibetan Buddhist temple in the heart of Beijing that was first
built in 1694 as the residence of Prince Yong of the Qing dynasty.
He lived here until 1723 when he became Emperor and moved to the Forbidden
City. Tradition dictated that his former home could only be converted
to a temple, which was renamed Yonghe temple after the Emperor's name Yong
Zheng. As a former imperial residence, the green roof tiles in the
compound were replaced with yellow ones. The transition from home
to temple took a long time to complete, and it wasn't until 1744 that the
first Tibetan monks began moving in.
The temple assumed an important role after the 1792 uprisings in Tibet, when Emperor Qianlong dictated that a gold vase be kept at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa and Yonghe temple in Beijing to determine the true reincarnations of the Dali Lama and the Mongolian Grand Living Buddha, respectively.
The temple suffered damage in the years of turmoil preceding the Communist takeover in 1949. It was not until 1961 that the government first listed Yonghe Gong as an important cultural property. During the chaos of the cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976, the temple escaped damage with the assistance of Premier Zhou Enlai, who resisted the anti-historical sentiments of the "Red Guards". After the cultural revolution active restoration began on the temple, and in 1981 it was opened to the public. A small staff of resident monks manages the temple and conducts services.
The temple architecture is an amalgam of Tibetan, Mongolian, and native Chinese. The chief artistic attraction is an 18-meter tall wooden Buddha carved from a single sandalwood tree imported from Tibet, the largest wooden statue on earth.
Please note that photography is forbidden inside all the buildings.
Click on the images
for larger views.
Bibliography:
All images copyright 1998-2001 Abe Ahn, Tim Ciccone
Storey, Robert. Beijing, Lonely Planet City Guide
Lonely Planet Publications. Hong Kong. 1996
Signposts located on site.