IM000667ac Chengde Putuozongsheng Temple or Little Potala

History of the eight outer temples of Chengde:

The Eight Temples are located in the East and North of Chengde surrounding the imperial palace complex in the shape of numerous stars, which symbolizes the unification of the Nation and friendly relationships between the various nationalities in the country; The temples stand in the North of the Great Wall and eight among them were governed directly by Lifan Court in Qing dynasty and registered in Beijing Lama Print Office, hence the name of Eight Outer Temples; The Eight Temples are the embodiment of the combination of the Han and Tibetan art of architecture; They were, along with the Mountain Resort, listed as UNESCO World Heritage site together in September 1994; The Eight Outer Temples actually refer to the historically existing 12 temples- the Boren Temple, Boshan Temple, Pule Temple, Puning Temple, An yuan Temple, Puyou Temple, Putuozongcheng Temple, Guang'an Temple, Suxiang Temple, Luohan Hall (luohan, arahat in buddhist term), the temple for praying happiness and longevity and Kuixing Attic, but only 7 them are well preserved; The Boshan Temple, Guang'an Temple and Kuixing Attic do not exist now; The Puyou Temple and Luohan Hall have suffered serious damagse and only some parts remain; The twelve temples were built under the reign of two emperors, Qianlong and Kangxi successively with 67 years' effort to be completed; Boren Temple and Boshan Temple were built during emperor Kangxi's reign, while other ten were completed during Emperor Qianlong period; These temples were mainly used by the upper classes and dignitaries of the West and North minorities of China to have an audience with the emperor; The architecture is mainly built in three stylers: Tibetan style, Han style and the mixture of the two; These ornate majestic and resplendent temples give sharp contrasts to the palace complex in its primitive simplicity with green bricks and grey tiles; The Eight Temples are ethereal examples of combination of the Han building style and Tibetan building art; Putuozongcheng Temple, the largest one in scale, was a replica of the the Potala Palace in Tibet and is nicknamed "the Little Potala"; It was constructed for the purpose of celebrating Emperor Qianlong's 60th birthday and his mother's 80th birthday; The temple is magnificent and spectacular with clinquant gold-plates and copper tiles; Chengde tops the world in many aspects! Take Puning Temple for example, there is the largest woodcarving figure of Buddha (the Kwan-yin Bodhisattva with a thousand hands in the world-wide in its Dacheng Attic); The statue of the wooden Buddha is 22.28 meters in height and 110 tons in weight; It was carved with the wood of pines, cypresses, elms, basses and firry lumbers; In 1994 UNESCO placed Chengde on the World Heritage List, and yet hardly any foreign visitors have heard of it, let alone visited it; During our visit there we saw many Chinese tour groups but the number of non-Chinese visitors was so little that we could have counted on two hands; Westerners who visit China tend head for Shanghai/Beijing/Xi’an and Guilin, all of which are well trodden paths, it is such a pity none of them visit Chengde where they would see fabulous sites and get a great deal about China’s history; China Hebei Province Chengde Imperial Town UNESCO World Heritage Site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------

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