The streets and alleys of Beijing are dotted with various temples. In these temples, the Lama Temple, located on the inner side of the northeast corner of the North Second Ring Road, has an extraordinary history.
This temple was converted from the Yong Prince's Mansion.
Lama temple
Prince Yong's palace was the palace given by the Kangxi Emperor to his fourth crown prince, Yin Chan. Yin Chan was born on December 13, 1678, to the mother of Princess Wuya. In 1694, the Kangxi Emperor sent someone to build a mansion on the site of today's Lama Temple, which was given to Yin Chan. Yin Chan was still only a Baylor, and the specifications of the mansion were not high.
In 1709, Yin Chan was made the Prince of Heshuo Yong by the Kangxi Emperor, and the mansion was upgraded to prince of Yong. The Qing court renovated and expanded the mansion according to the specifications of the prince's palace, and replaced the roof tiles of the main entrance, main hall and sleeping hall with green glazed tiles.
Prince Yong
In 1722, the Kangxi Emperor died of illness in Changchun Garden at the age of 69. Prince Yong succeeded to the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor. This was the first emperor to come out of Prince Yong's palace.
From 1694 to 1722, Prince Yong spent a total of 30 years in prince Yong's mansion. Here he married Fujin and Fujin, and had 8 sons and 4 daughters. After the Yongzheng Emperor entered the Forbidden City from the Palace of Prince Yong, he did not forget this place. He used half of Prince Yong's mansion as a palace so that he could come back at any time to relive old dreams and reminisce about the good times of that year; the other half was changed to the Upper House of HuangJiao, a Tibetan Buddhist sect that got its name because the monks wore yellow hats.
Why did the Yongzheng Emperor change his Prince Yong's palace to the Yellow Sect Upper Court? This is because he was obsessed with Tibetan Buddhism since he was a child, reading Buddhist scriptures, compiling Buddhist Zen quotations, and giving himself a Dharma name "Yuanming Resident". The Yongzheng Emperor befriended many Tibetan Buddhist masters, and under the guidance of the masters, he concentrated on meditation and broke through the "three passes" of Buddhism.
Yongzheng Emperor
In 1725, due to the accidental fire of the palace of Prince Yong and was burned down, the Yongzheng Emperor changed the Huangjiao Upper Court to a palace and renamed it Lama Temple.
On October 8, 1735, the Yongzheng Emperor died of illness at the age of 58. The heir of the Yongzheng Emperor, his fourth son, Prince Bao, was the Qianlong Emperor.
The Qianlong Emperor was born on September 25, 1711, in the palace of Prince Yong. As a result, the Qianlong Emperor became the second emperor to come out of prince Yong's palace.
After the Yongzheng Emperor died of illness, he once stopped in the Yongyou Hall of the Lama Temple. After the funeral for the Yongzheng Emperor, the Qianlong Emperor immediately replaced the green glazed cylinder tiles of the main halls of the Yonghe Temple, such as the Zhaotai Gate, the Yonghe Gate, the Main Hall, the Yongyou Hall, and the Falun Hall, with yellow glazed tiles. Only the Emperor could use yellow.
The Qianlong Emperor
In 1736, the Qianlong Emperor enshrined the portrait of his father, the Yongzheng Emperor, in the Yongyou Hall, renamed it the Divine Imperial Hall, added facilities such as the Nanmu Shrine and the Confession Case, and changed the yellow glazed tiles in front of it, costing a total of about 4989 taels of silver.
In 1744, the Qianlong Emperor officially converted the Lama Temple into a temple for Tibetan Buddhism.
Originally a traditional Chinese palace, the Lama Temple was remodeled by the Qianlong Emperor in order to conform to the appearance of a Tibetan Buddhist temple. To this end, a temporary agency called the "Lama Temple Engineering Agency" has been set up to be responsible for the construction of projects and the purchase of materials. The entire construction project cost about 100,000 taels of silver.
After the completion of the renovation project of the Lama Temple, the Qianlong Emperor sent the third Emperor of Tibetan Buddhism, Jangyah Hutuktu, to live in the Lama Temple to manage the affairs of Tibetan Buddhism in the country on behalf of the Qing court, which was the highest standard Buddhist temple in the country in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. Hutuktu was a close friend of the Qianlong Emperor, and they used to study together, and their feelings were very deep.
Why did the Qianlong Emperor turn the Lama Temple out of the two emperors into a Tibetan Buddhist temple?
On the one hand, although it is necessary to remember the ancestors and express filial piety, on the other hand, it is out of the need to promote Tibetan Buddhism. The Qianlong Emperor once said to Hutuktu: "The propagation and long-term residence of Buddhism is entirely devoted to the teachings of Buddhism, and if we build a scholastic academy that can listen to and practice all disciplines such as the occult teachings, it will be of great benefit to the propagation of Buddhism." ”
In fact, there is still a practical need. After the Qianlong Emperor succeeded to the throne, he faced complex Tibet and Mongolia problems. The Qianlong Emperor converted the Lama Temple into a Tibetan Buddhist temple, which had the need to co-opt the upper echelons of Tibet and Mongolia and ease contradictions.
After the founding of new China in 1949, the Lama Temple was rejuvenated with new vitality and vitality. In 1950, 1952 and 1979, China carried out three comprehensive renovations of the Lama Temple. In 1961, the Lama Temple, together with the ruins of the Pingying Regiment in Sanyuanli, the Zhongwang Mansion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Mogao Grottoes, became the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In February 1981, lama temple was opened to the public as a place of religious activity.
Nowadays, a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists and believers come to the Lama Temple every year to understand its past and current situation. After years of wind and rain, the Lama Temple still maintains the pattern and grandeur of prince Yong's palace, like a miniature version of the Palace Museum. It covers an area of about 6.6 hectares, with more than 1,000 large and small temples, connecting houses, colleges and other buildings.