Yonghe Temple

The Yonghe Temple , also known as the "Palace of Peace and Harmony Lama Temple", the "Yonghe Lamasery", or - popularly - the "Lama Temple" is a temple and monastery of the of Tibetan Buddhism located in the northeastern part of Beijing, China. It is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artworks of the temple combine Han Chinese and Tibetan styles.

History

Building work on the Yonghegong Temple started in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty. It originally served as an official residence for court eunuchs. It was then converted into the court of the Prince Yong , a son of the Kangxi Emperor and himself the future Yongzheng Emperor. After Yongzheng's ascension to the
throne in 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. The other half remained an imperial palace.

After Yongzheng's death in 1735, his coffin was placed in the temple. The Qianlong Emperor, Yongzheng's successor, gave the temple imperial status signified by having its turquoise tiles replaced with yellow tiles which were reserved for the emperor. Subsequently, the monastery became a residence for large numbers of Tibetan Buddhist monks from Mongolia and Tibet, and so the Yonghe Lamasery became the national centre of Lama administration.

The temple is said to have survived the Cultural Revolution due to the intervention of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. It was reopened to the public in 1981.

Architecture and artworks

The Yonghe Temple is arranged along a north-south central axis, which has a length of 480. The main gate is at the southern end of this axis. Along the axis, there are five main halls which are separated by courtyards: the ''Hall of the Heavenly Kings'' , the ''Hall of Harmony and Peace'' , the ''Hall of Everlasting Protection'' , the ''Hall of the Wheel of the Law'' , and the ''Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses'' .

The ''Hall of the Heavenly Kings'' is the southernmost of the main halls, it served originally as the main entrance to the monastery. In the center of the hall stands a statue of the Maitreya Buddha, along the walls statues of the four Heavenly Kings are arranged.

The ''Hall of Harmony and Peace'' is the main building of the temple. It houses three bronze statues of the Buddhas of the Three Ages, the statue of the Gautama Buddha is in the center, it is flanked by the statue of Kasyapa Matanga and the Maitreya Buddha . Along the sides of the hall, the statues of the 18 Arhats are placed. A mural in the hall shows the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.

The ''Hall of Everlasting Protection'' was Emperor Yongzheng's living quarters as a prince and the place where his coffin was placed after his death. Today, a statue of the ''Bhaisajya-guru'' stands in this hall.

The ''Hall of the Wheel of the Law'' functions as a place for reading scriptures and conducting religious ceremonies. It contains a large statue of Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Geluk School. The hall also contains the Five-Hundred-Arhat-Hill, a carving made of red sandalwood with statues of the arhats made from five different metals .

The ''Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses'' contains a 26 tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single piece of White Sandalwood. The statue is one of three artworks in the Temple which were included in the Guinness Book of Records in 1993.

Location

The Yonghe Temple is located in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, near the northeastern corner of the Second Ring Road. The postal address is: ''12 Yonghegong Dajie, Beixinqiao, Dongcheng District, Beijing''.

Further reading

*Lessing, Ferdinand, and G?sta Montell. ''Yung-Ho-Kung, an Iconography of the Lamaist Cathedral in Peking: With Notes on Lamaist Mythology and Cult.'' Stockholm: 1942.

Xingjiao Temple

Xingjiao Temple is located in Shaoling Yuan, Chang'an District, 20 kilometers south of Xi'an City. The five-storied Buddhist Relic Pagoda, preserving the relics of Xuanzang , is inside the temple, along with the pagodas of his desciples, Kuiji and Yuance.

Xingjiao Temple was built in AD 669 in order to re-inhume Xuanzang, ans was one of eight famed temples in Fanchuan in Tang Dynasty.

Now the relic pagoda is still the original building of Tang Dynasty. But the temple was burnt to the ground at Tongzhi years in Qing Dynasty. It was rebuilt during the period of the Republic of China.

Wolong Temple

Wolong Temple is located on Baishulin St., Beilin District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province of China. According to the stele in the temple, it was first built during Lingdi years , Han Dynasty, more than 1,800 years ago. It was called "Fu Ying Chan Yuan" in Sui Dynasty. The temple kept a painting of Guanyin drew by Wu Daozi in Tang Dynasty, so it was also called "Guanyin Temple" . It was renamed Wolong Temple during Taizong's years , Song Dynasty.

Wofo Temple

Wofo Temple is a located in the Beijing Botanical Garden from Beijing, China. The temple is best known as the location of the 'Recumbent Buddha', a large sculpture of the Buddha lying down created in 1321.

History

The temple was first built in the 7th century and known as the Doulu temple. During the following centuries temple was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times while also undergoing name changes. The current incarnation dates from 1734. The temple's first recumbent Buddha was carved in carved in sandstone. In 1321, during the Yuan dynasty the sandstone carving was replaced by a 5.2 meter long statue made of bronze and weighing 2.5 tons.

Layout

Following a north-south axis, the temple contains an entrance gate followed by three halls. On either side of the axis are buildings used by the monks for lodging as well as to accommodate guests. The first hall is called the Tianwang hall, the second the Sanshi Buddha hall, followed by the Recumbent Buddha hall.

White Horse Temple

White Horse Temple was the first temple in China, established under the patronage of in the Eastern capital Luoyang in the year 68.

Founding

According to the Book of Later Han history, Emperor Ming was said to have dreamed one night in the year 64 of a golden person standing 20 metres tall and with a radiating white aureola flying from the West. The next day he told his ministers, and the minister Zhong Hu explained to him that he had probably dreamed of the from India. The emperor then sent a delegation of 18 headed by Cai Yin, Qin Jing and Wang Zun to seek out Buddhism. They returned from Afghanistan with an image of Gautama Buddha, the ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters'' and two eminent monks.

The monks names have been variously romanized as Kasyapamatanga and Dharmavanya, Moton and Chufarlan.

The next year, the emperor ordered the construction of the White Horse Temple three li east of the capital Luoyang, to remember the horse that carried back the sutras. It was China's first Buddhist temple.

Naming

Notably, the emperor ordered the suffix 寺 to be used in the temple's name, as a display of respect. Previously, this character had been used to denote ministries of government. In later periods, all temples came to use this character in their name and it was dropped from the names of government ministries. As a result, the temple's name is sometimes translated as White Horse Ministry, a translation true to the time. However, White Horse Temple is the correct, literal reading to modern Chinese people.

Significance

The first version of the Chinese ''Sutra of Forty-two Sections'' was produced within the temple. The temple then increased in importance as Buddhism grew within China, and spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The introduction of Buddhism in China was also a significant influence on Chinese morals, thought and ethics.

Location

The temple is located within and Dynasty Luoyang, which lies approximately 12km east of modern Luoyang, in Henan .

History

In 258. a royal monk, Po-Yen, translated six Buddhist text in to at the temple, including the important ''Infinite Life Sutra''.

In 1175, an inscription on a stone tablet next to Qilun Pagoda—a 35 m tall, multi-eaved square-based tower located to the southeast of the White Horse Temple—stated that a previous fire occurred five decades previously and destroyed the temple and the Sakya Tathagata sarira stupa, a predecessor to the pagoda. The same inscription of 1175 stated that a official had the stone Qilun Pagoda erected soon after. The is built with the design style imitating the square-based pagodas of the Tang Dynasty.

In 1992, with the assistance of and Chinese donors, the Hall of the Thai Buddha was constructed slightly west of the old temple.

Description

The temple compound covers an area of 200 , and faces south. A stone paifang has been recently built 150 metres in front of the original gate. Between the archway and gate lies a pool with fountains, spanned by three stone bridges.

Entering the temple today, one sees the Hall of , Hall of the , Hall of Mahavira, Hall of Greeting, the Cool and Clear Terrace and the . On each side of the pavilion are the Sutra House and the Magic Weapon House.

Visiting today

The temple is open to the public, and can be reached by public bus number 56 from Luoyang Train Station. Standard tickets cost 35元 and discounts are available to students at half price .

Wanshou Temple

The Wanshou Temple is a temple located at the Suzhou street in Beijing. In addition to being a Buddhist temple, the Wanshou Temple also houses the Beijing Art Museum.

It was built in 1577 during the era of the Ming Dynasty to store Chinese Buddhist scriptures; it also later became a permanent celebration place for the imperial families of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Wanshou Temple was known as one of Beijing's most important temples, and it was declared as one of Beijing's "Key Cultural Heritage of Preservation" in August of 1979. The Beijing Art Museum housed in the Wanshou Temple has also collected and preserved precious historical relics such as bronze and jade articles of and Dynasties , and ancient art treasures such as porcelains, earthenwares, enamels, carved lacquer ware, ivory carving, wood carving, and many relics from past dynasties.

Among the most important items displayed in the museum includes Chinese paintings and calligraphies from the Ming and Qing Dynasties since 1368 A.D, Chinese weavings and embroideries of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and ancient coins of China and foreign countries. Modern Chinese, Japanese and other Asian arts and crafts and paintings are also displayed in the museum.

Wanfu Temple

Wanfu Temple is a temple on Mount Huangbo in Fujian , China. It is famous as the original temple of Yinyuan Longqi, the temple's 33rd abbot and a master. He later travelled to Japan with his disciple Muyan to found the Japanese school of Zen.