Beijing...... my home for more than ten years.
From Forbidden City to Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace to Yonghe Lhama Temple,
Longqing Gorge, White Cloud Mountain, etc.
It is the place where the ancient and modern blend into one.
Yonghe Gong or Yonghe Palace is a Tibetan Budhism Temple located in the inner part of Beijing city. It was a former house of Prince Yong/ 雍亲王 - the 4th Prince of Kangxi Emperor. Prince Yong himself later became the Yongzheng Emperor 雍正皇帝。 Yongzheng or Prince Yong was mentioned in a lot of wuxia novels and historical fiction tv series such as : 散花女侠 (Tiga Dara Pendekar - Liang Ie Sheng), 大内群英 (Dynasty - ATV),步步惊心 (Scarlet Heart), 雍正王朝 (Yongzheng Dynasty - CCTV) Yongzheng himself, mostly portrayed in a negative light. He only ruled for thirteen years, and he's overshadowed by his father Emperor Kangxi who ruled for 61 years and his son - Emperor Qianlong who ruled for 60 years. But, Yongzheng was not a bad nor an incapable ruler. Actually he's a very capable ruler too. Yonghe Gong, or Yonghe Palace, was granted by Kangxi to Prince Yong. Seeing how big and magnificent the complex is, I really believe that Kangxi somehow loved this son. Many fictions and gossips, that later involved into historical fictions and tv series that showed how Prince Yong forged Kangxi's will and took the throne, and that actually the real one who supposed to be the next emperor was 14th Prince. I'm not going to write about that, since I'm only focusing on Yonghe Gong now. Yonghe Gong is a very interesting place, the architecture is a blend of Chinese architecture and Tibetan architecture. It's so beautiful! Inside it, there's a giant Budha statue made of a solid wood. It's the largest statue made of a single solid wood. It's in the Guiness Book of Record. Yonghe Gong is the one and only palace in Beijing where the Tibetan architecture and Chinese style architecture blend in. Manchurian Qing Dynasty mostly were Tibetan Budhist, and Emperor Yongzheng was known as a devoted Tibetan Budhist. Tibet was part of China as early as Tang Dynasty. But this poor region, and so far remote from the capital city. Therefore no other dynasties but Qing Dynasty put attention more on Tibet. Qing Dynasty, started by Emperor Shunzhi was the one who first created the term 'Dalai Lama'. And he even concluded Tibetan language as its official language. Therefore after Qing Dynasty, all the palaces and imperial edicts, besides the official Han Chinese language, they also put Mongolian, Manchurian and Tibetan language. From right to left : Mongolian, Chinese, Tibetan, Manchurian. Anyway, that's the plate of the Yonghe Gate, Gate of Yonghe Palace.
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Author:I am Kangxi's big fan. I read books about him, and I travel and visit places he visited before. D'oh!! :p Archives
February 2020
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