China Beijing Lama Temple

The Yonghegong Temple is one of the few imperial monasteries of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing. Historically, it was the residence of the fourth son of the Qing Emperor, Yin Zhen (Emperor Yongzheng), and the birthplace of Emperor Qianlong.Later, it was converted into a Gelugpa monastery, and is still a very popular place of worship. The temple also contains many precious ancient buildings and cultural relics, making it well worth a visit.

Han-Tibetan combination

A major characteristic of Yonghegong as a temple is that it is a fusion of the two major schools of Buddhism: Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. When visiting Yonghegong, you can see the pot-bellied Maitreya Buddha of Chinese Buddhism and the gilded bronze statue of Tsongkhapa, the master of Tibetan Buddhism, in the Dharma Wheel Hall.

Precious cultural relics

Lama Temple also houses treasures that the local government of Tibet in the Qing Dynasty presented to the imperial family and the temple (some of the collections can be viewed in the two cultural relic exhibition halls in the Banchen Building and the Jietai Building).The halls and temples of the temple are home to numerous Buddhist statues, thangkas and a large number of precious cultural relics.Among them, the sandalwood carving of the Five Hundred Luohan Mountain, the large Buddha niche carved with golden phoebe wood dragons and the 18-meter-high white sandalwood Buddha are the three wonders of Yonghegong’s wood carving craftsmanship. The three wonders are the extremely famous Maitreya Buddha in the Wanfu Pavilion. Eighteen meters above the ground and eight meters embedded in the ground, it is carved from a single piece of white sandalwood.The tree originated in Nepal and was later dedicated to Emperor Qianlong.

Tour route

The main building complex of Yonghegong Temple consists of the archway, Zhaotai Gate (mountain gate), Yonghegong Hall, Yongyou Hall, Falun Hall, Wanfu Pavilion, and two cultural relic exhibition halls: the Banchen Building and the Jietai Building. There are also other buildings such as the east and west annexes and the “Four Learning Halls”.buildings.Visit the Yonghe Lamasery. You can walk along the central axis to visit the various halls.

Buddhist activities

In addition to the regular morning ceremonies on the first, tenth, fifteenth and thirtieth days of each lunar month, there are also major annual events at Yonghegong, during which the number of tourists and believers will increase significantly.

Surrounding attractions

Lama Temple and the Imperial College are separated by a road and are very close to each other; from the Lama Temple, walk north for about 200 meters to reach Ditan Park; walk east for about 15 minutes to reach Dongzhimen Street, also known as “Gui Street,” which is Beijing’sa street of restaurants.