Yonghe Temple

Background

Yonghe Temple stands at No. 12 Yonghegong Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, and covers about 66,000 square metres. Along the central axis stand, in order, Yonghe Gate (the Hall of Heavenly Kings), Yonghegong Hall, Yongyou Hall, Falun Hall and Wanfu Pavilion, blending Han and Tibetan architectural styles. The Maitreya Buddha in Wanfu Pavilion was carved from a single white sandalwood trunk, rising 18 metres above ground with a further 8 metres buried below. Falun Hall enshrines a statue of Je Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug school; behind it, the Five Hundred Arhats Hill is carved from red sandalwood, with arhat figures cast in five metals — gold, silver, copper, iron and tin. Yonghe Temple was first built in 1694 as the residence of Prince Yong, the Kangxi Emperor's fourth son Yinzhen. After Yinzhen ascended the throne as the Yongzheng Emperor and moved into the Forbidden City, the old residence was renamed Yonghegong, and in 1744 the Qianlong Emperor ordered it converted into a Tibetan Buddhist monastery. From then on it long served the Qing court as a centre for liaison with and administration of Mongolian and Tibetan religious affairs, and it was one of the Qing imperial court's most important temples. It was listed among the first Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level in 1961 and reopened to the public in 1981. Ritual instruments, thangkas and Buddha statues abound in the temple, where monks still live and incense still burns.

Local customs

Walk the central axis from south to north through the five courtyards of halls in turn, pay your respects to the Tsongkhapa statue and the Five Hundred Arhats Hill in Falun Hall, and look up at the white sandalwood Maitreya Buddha in Wanfu Pavilion. If a ritual is under way, you can quietly watch the monks chanting from outside the hall. Every year in the twelfth lunar month, the temple keeps up its tradition of giving out laba porridge.

Travel tips

• Allow about 2 hours
• the central-axis route is clear and easy to follow in one direction. Check the official notices for tickets and opening hours. Light is dim inside the halls and there are thresholds underfoot, so watch your step. Incense smoke can be heavy when the temple is busy
• wear a mask if it bothers you.
• Metro Lines 2 and 5 stop at Yonghegong Station, right by the temple
• parking nearby is extremely scarce, so take the metro. You can visit all year round. The laba porridge in the twelfth lunar month and the Spring Festival season see the thickest incense and the biggest crowds
• the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month draw more worshippers, so if you prefer quiet, come on a weekday morning.