Lama Shuo

Qianlong’s Pronouncement on Lamas (Lama shuo)

In this 1792 stele pronouncement found in the Yonghe Gong, the Qianlong emperor declared formal Qing patronage over the dGe-lugs-pa which was enjoying high popularity among its Mongol followers. This Pronouncement was inscribed in Chinese, Manchu, Mongol and Tibetan, signifying the Manchu’s (and ultimately Qianlong’s) claim to universal rulership as the Court officially recognised both the Dalai and Panchen Lamas. The Pronouncement claimed that unlike the Mongols, the Qing has never used the term “di shi” (imperial preceptor) to represent the relationship between the Emperor and the leading Tibetan Lama. However, the term “guo shi” or “Teacher of the Kingdom” was only reserved for Lcang Skya who was the Qianlong Emperor’s confidante, as well as the leading Lama representing the Qing Court in Tibetan affairs. Since Qianlong explicitly rejects claims that the Lama had any spiritual superiority over the Emperor and re-establishes the hierarchy of rulership between Lamas and patron. The pronouncement also declared that the process of picking the future Dalai Lama would no longer be concentrated within the hands of certain Tibetan or Mongolian lineages. Instead, the names of the potential incarnates would be placed in a golden urn and selected in a public ceremony to ensure impartiality. This was also in response to the accusations of the defeated Nepalese Gurkhas, (and some Chinese) who claimed that the Qing merely patronised the dGe-lugs-pa for the sake of political expediency in keeping the Mongols in check. However, Qianlong, in the edict, proclaimed in the Manchu inscription that as a devote Tibetan Buddhist, he not only understood but had the right to make the changes that he did as Emperor.

Sources:
Patricia Berger. 2003. Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China. U Hawaii Press pp 34-5, James L. Hevia. 1995. Lamas, Emperors, and Rituals

Entry: 4/28/07

Qianlong Pentaglot Dictionary

Qing text Qianlong Pentaglot Dictionary (Wuti Qingwen Jian五體清文鑒)

The enormous project was to create a pentaglot dictionary (Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Chagatay) and seems to have been spearheaded by the guoshi Changkya Rolpay Dorje (Lcang Skya) who found it immensely difficult to provide accurate translations between the different languages employed by the Qing Court. It was completed in 1769 This stemmed from a bigger issue of translating Buddhist documents from the different languages and trying to retain its essential doctrines without compromising on its theology. This included translations of the Tibetan Kanjur into Mongolian, as well as its commentaries; the translation of the Tanjur and the Kanjur into Manchu and the Suramgaman Sutra from Chinese into Tibetan. Rolpay Dorje had also previously compiled an authoritative Manchu-Mongol dictionary to help translators in standardizing all translations.


Source:

Mimaki. A Tibetan Index to the Pentaglot Dictionary from the Qing Dynasty. JIATS 1988, pp. 279-282.

Entry by: ShiQi Wu, 4/2/07

Two Lamaistic Pantheons

Two Tibetan Buddhist text printings

1. Pantheon of 300 Gods / 300 Icons (Tib.: Sku brnyan phrag gsum)

Pantheon of Three Hundred Gods was assembled and published by Changkya Rolpay Dorje (1717-1786), an advisor, artistic consultant of the Qianlong emperor (1736—1795) and a learned lama and widely published scholar.

The Tibetan names are given underneath, and each figure is accompanied by a dharani. The original wood blocks are still preserved, and prints are still procurable in Beijing[[#_ftn1|[1]]].

Pantheon of Three Hundred Gods served as the major source of information on Tibetan Buddhist iconography for Western scholar. It is evidential that the images in Rolpay Dorge’s pantheons made a big impact on Buddhist art during the Qianlong period onwards.

2. In Praise of [the sacred images of] All the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

In Praise of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (zhufo pusa shengxiang zan; 諸佛菩薩聖像讚) contains 360 figures accompanied by 360 eulogies in Chinese. The figures are divided into twenty-three divisions and the figures in each division are numbered. The Tibetan and Chinese names of the divinities are given below and above; the Mongolian and Manchu names are given at the two sides[[#_ftn2|[2]]].

It is ascribed to Rolpay Dorje (1717-1786), a well known Tibetan Lama who was the state preceptor of the Qianlong emperor (1736-1795). This manuscript now belongs to the National Library of Beijing.

Sources:
Terese Tse Bartholomew, Thangkas for the Qianlong Emepror’s Seventieth Birthday, Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism, Marsha Weidner (ed.), U.H.P., Honolulu, 2001

Clark, Walter Eugene, Two Lamaistic pantheons, Harvard U.P. 1965, pp. x-xi

Entry by Lan Wu 04/01/07

[[#_ftnref1|[1]]] For further information regarding this pantheon, see Eugen Pander, Das Pantheon des Tschangtscha Hutuktu, Veroffentlichungen aus dem kgl. Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin, I, 2/3/, 1890, Albert Grunwedel (ed.)
[[#_ftnref2|[2]]] For further information concerning to this work, see Stael-Holstein, Remarks on the Chu Fo P’u Sa Sheng Hsiang Tsan, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Library, Vol. I, 1928

Multilingual texts during Qianlong Reign

Multilingual texts during Qianlong Reign

There have been a lot of multilingual texts during Xixia, Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods. “Xixiazang” is one example of it; according to Heather Karmay, Guanzhuba was involved in making this work in Hangzhou. “Xixiazang” was written both in Xixia and Chinese, and made between 1306 and 1307. Among these dynasties and states, Qing empire had especially a lot of multilingual texts; Qianlong Emperor made many multilingual edicts. According to Patricia Berger, Qianlong Emperor carved four languages of empires when he made an edict for Ubasi, the leader of the Torghut Mongols having been arrived from Russia in 1773. The four languages of the Empire were Manchu, Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian. In 1737, Qianlong Emperor also made “an edict of three languages” in the courtyard of the “Monastery of Blssed Peace (Qingningsi).” Again in 1792, he composed “quadrilingual stele of Yonghegong” in Yonghegong.

The reason for these dynasties and especially Qing Empire having a lot of multilingual texts has not been clearly known. However, Patricia Berger suggests the reason of Qianlong Emperor’s having made a lot of multilingual texts in her “Empire of Emptiness”; Qianlong Emperor thought he had power over other states, by mastering and using the languages of the states that Qing was ruling. Berger quoted Qianlong emperor saying,

“In 1743 I first practiced Mongolian. In 1760 after I pacified the Muslims, I acquainted myself with Uighur. In 1776 after the two pacifications of Jinchuan I became roughly conversant in Tibetan. In 1780 because the Panchen Lama was coming to visit I also studied Tangut. Thus when the rota of Mongols, Muslims and Tibetans come every year to the capital for audience I use their languages and do not rely on an interpreter… to express the idea of conquering by kindness.” [[#_ftn1|[1]]]

The quote shows that Qianlong Emperor actually thought knowing the language and showing his knowledge of the language itself show that Qing Empire’s power over the other states.

[[#_ftnref1|[1]]] Berger, p 38, note to Yuan Hongqi, “Qianlong shiqi de gongting jieqing huodong,” Gugongbowuyuan yuankan 53, no. 3 (1991: 85)

Chengde Pule Si

Pule Si

Pule si, built by the Qianlong emperor between 1766–67, was the 6th of 12 outer temples built at Chengde. Although called the Eight Outer Temples in Chinese (Wai ba miao) the twelve were built in the following order (the first two by Kangxi, and the rest by Qianlong): Puren si, Pushan si, Puning si, Puyou si, Anyuan miao, Pule si, Putuozongcheng miao, Guang’an si, Shuxiang si, Luohan tang, Xumifushou miao, and Anguo si. These outer temples flanked the eastern and northern edges of the imperial summer resort, the Bishu shanzhuang. The innovative and deliberate reinterpretations of architectural styles and landscapes from Chinese and Inner Asian sources at Chengde have been likened to a rational political tool used to further modern conceptions of state formation. Pule Si was part of a larger scenic landscape, with 36 landscape vistas, that illustrated a series of perspectives that the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors deliberately displayed to their Chinese bureaucrats and Inner Asian nobles. Each layer of the landscape was created to resonate with only select audiences of the emperor’s empire, with the emperor as the unifying center able to mediate all the landscape layers. These scenes were displayed to show the dynamism of landscape as an aesthetic medium that was then circulated through the empire via multilingual publications such as the imperially-sponsored Album of Imperial Poems.

Pule si, resembling Beijing’s Temple of Heaven (and possibly suggesting a link to the altar of Heaven in the old Manchu capital, Mukden) and described as a stupa and mandala, was built for the western Mongols coming for the yearly tribute. Its name links it to two other outer temples. Together, Pule si, Anyuan miao, and Puning si contain the three characters, le, an, ning, that signify the three ways to nirvana. Unlike other outer temples that face south according to Qing imperial tradition, Pule si (and like Anyuan miao) is oriented toward the west, recalling the orientation of older Tibetan temples such as the Jokhang in Lhasa and Samye.

Pule si is situated south of Anyuan miao and aligned with the Bangchui rock formation to the east, which connects it in a straight line, through the center of the temple, to the imperial residence. The main temple of Pule si is a triple terrace. The lowest level, no longer extant, was a surrounding gallery. The upper terrace is a wooden, Indian-style mandala containing a statue of Samvara and covered by a circular golden ceiling decorated with an imperial dragon. The link between Pule si and the Qianlong emperor is further clarified by the imperial inscription that mentions the role of Lcang skya Rol pa’i rdo rje in constructing the temple. Lcang skya had given the Qianlong emperor the Samvara initiation. Thus the construction of Pule si with its Samvara mandala has been said to symbolize the lama-patron relationship between Lcang skya and the Qianlong emperor, while its construction on the eve of the western Mongols’ tributary visit can possibly be interpreted as a symbol of their new link with the empire.

Readings of Pule si must take into account its context within the larger imperial landscape production at Chengde. As such, it was part of an aesthetic, consumerist, and thus modern, instrument of unification for the producer, the emperor, as well as an instrument of alienation for the consumer, the imperial subjects.

Sources:
Philippe Forêt. 2000. Mapping Chengde: The Qing landscape enterprise. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i. pp. 49-53, 116-138.
Anne Chayet. 2004. Architectural Wonderland: An Empire of Fictions. In James Millward, et al. eds. New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde. pp. 33-52.

Entry by Eveline S. Yang 4/17/07

Puning Si

Puning Si

One of the Eight Outer Temples at Qianlong’s Jehol complex, was built in 1755, in conjunction with the anticipated defeat of the Dzunghar Mongols. It was modeled on Samye (or on painted representations of Samye) the 8th Century Central Tibetan monastic site famed as the first Buddhist monastery built in Tibet. Puning si is one of three Jehol temples modeled on pre-existing Tibetan structures – Putuozongcheng miao is modeled on the Potala and Xumifushou is modeled on Tashilhunpo. The degree to which the temples in Jehol actually resembled the originals is subject to debate. It seems that the effort was not to exactly duplicate the Tibetan buildings, but rather to evoke an impression of these important and distinctive Tibetan Buddhist sites. Samye’s architecture incorporates Tibetan, Chinese, and Indian influences; each floor of the main temple is based on one of these distinct styles. The overall complex is said to be modeled after an eariler Indian Buddhist temple. The complex is made up of three concentric structures, housing various chapels with a statue of Shakyamuni occupying the central-most position. Samye is generally regarded as a mandala. Likewise, Puning si brings together various architectural and aesthetic styles, and its designers under Qianlong claimed that it too was a mandala-like structure based on the Indian original. Puning si’s main hall or Dasheng ge, houses a large statue of Avalokiteshvara in Shakyamuni’s stead and the overall structure of the buildings does not follow Samye’s model. The doors of Puning si display scroll motifs evocative of the Yuanming yuan style.

Link to 360 view of main image:
view from the first floor: link
view from the second floor: link

Sources:
Chayet, Anne. “Architectural Wonderland: An Empire of Fictions.” In James Millward, et al. eds. New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde. pp. 33-52. 20pp.

Chengde Shuxiang Si

Chengde Shuxiang Si

Shuxiang si 殊像寺 built by Qianlong Emperor in the valley north of his Bishu shanzhuang 避暑山莊is one of the eight temples on the outskirts of Chengde of the Heibei province. According to the records, after Qianlong accompanied his mother to Wutai shan 五台山, he decided to build a temple dedicated to Manjusri. Its architecture is based on a temple with the same name on Wutai shan.

The Shuxiang si in Chengde, just like the model it is based on in Wutai shan, has a classical architectural appearance. Echoing Qianlong emperor’s proclamation that he was the reincarnation of Manjusri, the bodhisattva’s statue in the Shuxiang si seemed to be a portrait of the emperor himself.

Something that set Shuxiang si apart from other monasteries was the fact that it was renowned for the scholarly work that was done there. It was truly a working monastery under the imperial patronage.

Sources:
Anne Chayet. 2004. “Architectural Wonderland: An Empire of Fictions.” In James Millward, et al. eds. New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde. pp. 33-52.
Philippe Forêt. 2000. Mapping Chengde: The Qing landscape enterprise. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i. 49-53, 116-138.

Entry by Agnes Lin

Xumifushou Temple

Xumifushou 须弥福寿庙 (Blessings and Longevity of Sumeru)

In 1780, the 6th Panchen Lama, Blo bzangs dpal ldan ye shes (1738–80) arrived at Chengde (承德), the summer retreat complex of the Manchus, to participate in the seventieth birthday celebrations of the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–95). As part of the celebrations, the emperor had ordered the construction of the Xumifushou Temple, which replicated Bkra shis lhun po (Tashi Lhunpo), the seat of the Panchen Lama in Central Tibet. The birthday celebrations, and the elaborate preparations and ritualized activities that accompanied it, were based on historical precedents (as well as creative innovations) and served as displays of the emperor’s righteous rule over his Inner Asian subjects.

The practice of constructing Buddhist sites honoring political victories harked back to the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662–1723) who built the Huizong Monastery in Dolonnor for the Khalka Mongols after their surrender to the Manchus in 1691. The Qianlong emperor adopted this practice and built two more temples commemorating the conclusion of political victories: the Puning Temple (普宁寺), which was modeled after Bsam yas Monastery, in 1755 at Chengde to honor the Manchu defeat of the Dzungar Mongols, and the Putuozongchengmiao (普陀宗乘庙), modeled after the Potala Palace in Lhasa, in 1771 at Chengde for the combined occasions of the Empress Dowager’s eightieth birthday, Qianlong’s sixtieth birthday, and the return of the Kalmuk (or Torghut) Mongols to the Qing empire. Thus the construction of replicated Buddhist sites was instilled as an appropriate commemoration of political expansion. The act of replication, which was utilized in many different ways during the Qianlong reign, has been discussed as ritual acts where semiotic reinterpretation and alterations produced effects in experienced reality as well as permanent alterations of the significance of the original form.

The Shunzhi emperor (1644–61) established the precedent of constructing elaborate residences for visiting Tibetan prelates. In 1652, he ordered the construction of Xihuang Monastery (西黄寺) in Beijing for the visit of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngag dbang blo bzangs rgya mtsho (1617–82).

Thus, since the Qianlong emperor viewed his seventieth birthday as an occasion to impress upon his Inner Asian subjects the legitimacy of his rule, he drew upon these precedents to create spectacular settings for such ritual enactments. In 1778, the Qianlong emperor was overjoyed at the news that the Sixth Panchen Lama wished to be present at his birthday celebrations (likely influenced by Rol pa’i rdo rje, the senior-most lama in the imperial court and guru to Qianlong), as he was then the highest ranking prelate in Tibet and his visit would mark the second most important state visit from Tibet since the visit of the Fifth Dalai Lama. The order to construct the Xumifushou was issued on 26 January 1779, just three days after the emperor issued the official invitation to the Panchen Lama. In another letter to the Panchen Lama, dated to 18 February 1779, the emperor mentions that the Xumifushou was being built following the precedent of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s visit to Beijing.
The emperor decreed that construction was to be completed before the fourth month in 1780 to allow time for accommodating the monks and massive amounts of luggage that would arrive ahead of the Panchen Lama’s entourage. Indeed, construction was finished in the spring of 1780. The Xumifushou was built, under the close supervision of Rol pa’i rdo rje, to the east of the Putuozongcheng (Potala replica) on a mountain slope. While the façade of the complex is in the Tibetan style, the actual layout was designed like a Chinese monastic complex, on a central north-south axis. The complex consists of a main hall, called the Miaogao zhuang yan (妙高庄严), Lofty and Solemn Hall, which was designed for the Panchen Lama to give teachings and use for meditation and devotions. The roof of the Panchen Lama’s residential building, the Jixiang Faxi (吉祥法喜), Auspicious Omen and Joy in the Law, as well as the roof of the main hall were gilded in copper twice by imperial command. Two smaller pavilions were located to the right and left of the main hall. The pavilion on the left was that of the Panchen Lama’s, while the pavilion on the right, the Yuzuo, or Royal Throne, was that of the Qianlong emperor, and where his throne was installed. To the rear of the complex is the Wanfa zongyuan (万法宗源), Source of Ten Thousand Dharmas, which was the dormitory of the Panchen Lama’s entourage.

Documents record that massive amounts of objects were tranferred to Xumifushou from the temples of the Forbidden City and imperial workshops of the Zaobanchu in Beijing. An inventory submitted in 1800 records that there were 21 thangkas of Buddhist images in the main hall, 84 thangkas in the Yuzuo (Qianlong’s pavilion), 5 thangkas of Amitayus and 5 thangkas of Shakyamuni on the north side of this same pavilion, 12 bronze images and two sets of glass wugong sets (an incense burner, two candlesticks, and two vases) on the alter of this pavilion, and embroidered thangkas of Lhamo and eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara that were hung in the Jixiang Faxi, where the Panchen Lama resided.

While the replica of Bkra shis lhun po at Chengde only superficially followed its original, the actual purpose of its construction was communicated by the emperor himself in the four-language stele located at the entrance to the complex. In Chinese, Manchu, Tibetan, and Mongolian, the emperor observed that the two greatest disciples of Tsong kha pa, the founder of the dGe lugs pa school, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama occupied separate monastic seats located at great distances from each other. Under the auspices of Qing imperial birthdays, these two seats of Tibetan Buddhism were brought together side by side, in replication, at Chengde. The construction of the Xumifushou folowed the precedent set by the building of Xihuang Monastery for the Fifth Dalai Lama’s visit. Qianlong goes on to declare that beyond following precedents, all the temples at Chengde served political functions by uniting China and its frontiers into “a single family.” By using visual similiarity, analogy, and proximity, Qianlong could extol his own “nonaction” as the key to his successful rule and to radiate his merit outward for the benefit of others. Thus the replication of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries at Chengde served as a means for the emperor to re-order his empire in panoptic form in a way that legitimized his rule as a benevolent and meritorious monarch and in the language of his Inner Asian subjects.

Sources:
Patricia Berger. 2003. Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China. U Hawaii Press
Terese Tse Bartholomew. 2001. Thangkas for the Qianlong Emperor’s seventieth birthday. In Cultural intersections in later Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i.

Entry by Eveline S. Yang 4/3/07

Cining Palace and its Baoxiang Lou

Qing place Cining Palace and its Baoxianglou

Cining Palace 慈寧宮 (Kind {Mother} Tranquility Palace) was originally built in 1536 of the Jiajing 嘉靖reign. It was constructed on the site of the previous Renshou Palace 仁壽宮. It was reconstructed several times during the reign of Wanli 萬歷 in Ming and the reigns of Shunzhi 順治, Kangxi 康熙and Qianlong 乾隆in Qing.

In front of Cining Palace gate, there was a plaza, which was enclosed by the Yongkang left gate 永康左門, Yongkang right gate 永康右門and the Changxin Gate 長信門on the south.

Since the reign of Wanli of the Ming dynasty, many dowager empresses and concubines all resided there. Cining Palace was also the site for major celebrations, including the birthdays of dowager empresses. After dowager empresses passed away, they were also buried in this place.

Baoxianglou 寶相樓 (“Treasure/Precious-appearance Storied Structure”) was located on the north of Cining Palace Garden. During the Ming dynasty, it was originally the side hall on the east of the Xianruo Palace 咸若殿. It was rebuilt in the Qing and construction was completed in 1653. It was transformed into a lou 樓 structure during the Qianlong period. Inside Boaxianglou, there were seven Buddhist halls. Six of the Buddhist halls contained Great Buddhist Stupas大佛塔. There were 54 Temple Guardians painted on the walls surrounding the Great Buddhist Stupas. According to the record from the Qing dynasty, this kind of structure is called Liupin folou 六品佛樓.

Over 700 Tibetan Buddhist images from these buildings were photographically recorded and documented by Staël_Holstein in 1926 and 1927 and published in the fourth part of Walter Eugene Clark’s Two Lamaistic Pantheons, which noted that the Qianlong Emperor’s mother lived there. On her 60th, 70th and 80th birthdays (1751, 1761, 1771), her son gave her many sets of Buddhas, numbering over 10,000.

Sources:
Walter Eugene Clark’s Two Lamaistic Pantheons, xi-xii.
http://www.dpm.org.cn

Entry by Agnes Lin; updated by GWT

Yonghe Gong

Yonghegong 雍和宮

The Yonghegong or “Palace of Harmony” is the largest Tibetan-style monastery in Beijing. Built as a palace for the Yongzheng emperor, the complex was rededicated in 1744 by his son the Qianlong emperor as a monastery for Mongolian, Tibetan, and Chinese practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. Yonghegong significantly fused a site of personal importance to the Qianlong emperor, associated with his father and with his own past, to the architecture and iconography of the emperor’s grand present and intimated glorious future.

As a place of personal significance, not only did the Qianlong emperor associate Yonghegong with his father, it was also the site of his own birth in 1711 and childhood upbringing. The Qianlong emperor kept his father’s body housed at Yonghegong until the final burial place was completed, and even afterwards entrusted the Mongolian monks of Yonghegong with maintaining the imperial family’s shrine. Yonghegong was the site of the Yongzheng emperor’s ancestral tablet and the Qianlong emperor’s annual filial sacrifices. In his first Yonghegong edict of 1744, the Qianlong emperor cites earlier precedents in China for converting imperial palaces into monasteries after the resident emperor’s death. The Yongzheng emperor himself had converted his father Kangxi’s palaces into monasteries, and had converted half the grounds of Yonghegong – at that time the rest of the grounds served as the emperor’s traveling palace – into a Buddhist refuge in 1725, just two years after he ascended the throne. Although the Yongzheng emperor practiced diverse religious traditions, most notably Daoism, reference to this is elided, and instead the Qianlong emperor in his edict portrays his father as an enlightened being akin to Sakyamuni Buddha.

Yonghegong’s dedication as a home mostly for Mongolian monks in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition belies its significance at the time of the Qianlong emperor’s “present.” The “Jetavana garden,” as the Qianlong emperor called it in his edict, simultaneously honored the Mongols by giving them care over the Yongzheng emperor’s relics but also worked to assert control over the Mongolian Buddhist establishment through paternalistic kindness. Yonghegong was also a war temple during both the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors’ reigns. There is a tower in the complex devoted to Yamantaka, the conqueror of death and protector deity of Beijing. The Qianlong emperor kept his own weapons here and sent high officials to offer sacrifice during times of war. Monks chanted in the temple every day. In the Yongzheng emperor’s time, a subsidiary temple called Qushengdian or Hall of the War God was built to house a deity associated with a Han Chinese war general from the third century, Guan Yu. Rol pa’i rdo rje also later had a strong connection with this deity, but this temple is no longer extant.

Responsibility for Yonghegong’s design was given to Qianlong’s childhood friend and Tibetan Buddhist guru, the Monguor lama Rol pa’i rdo rje, along with the Gandan Shiregetu Losang Tenpay Nyima, another great incarnate lama of Beijing. The iconography of Yonghegong reflects a primary concern with the future, as reflected by the central importance of images of Maitreya. The Tibetan name for the monastery is Gandenchincholing, meaning “Splendid Heaven of Joy” and referring both to Maitreya’s Tushita heaven and to the first monastery built in 1407 by Tsong kha pa – founder of the Dge lugs pa lineage to which Yonghegong belonged. Maitreya is a central deity in Mongolian Dge lugs pa Buddhism, being associated both with Zanzabar – who instituted a popular and annual public homage ritual to Maitreya on New Year’s Day – and to Taranatha, another popular Tibetan Buddhist missionary among the Mongols who was of the rival Jonangpa lineage but was nevertheless claimed as Zanzabar’s preincarnation. There are two Maitreya images in Yonghegong, a small “Laughing Buddha” Hwashang in the first hall of the monastery, and a colossal sandalwood Buddha in the second to last hall, the Wanfuge.

Another more Tibeto-Mongolian and specifically Dge lugs pa “millennial” practice associated with Yonghegong were the rites of the Kalachakra tantra, or the Wheel of Time. The Kalachakra tantra is said to have been revealed by Shakyamuni Buddha to the king of a mysterious northern land called Shambhala. The last king of Shambhala will wage a terrible war against evil and then preside over a new age of peace and harmony. This story could have been strongly resonant to the Manchu (northern) dynasty and to the Qianlong emperor in particular, who called himself a peaceful ruler. Yonghegong houses a Kalachakra mandala, paintings of Shambhala, and a Kalachakra deity with his consort Vishvamati. The tantra was also repeatedly and sometimes annually recited by separate groups of monks, who at one time reached a total of one hundred reciters. This practice often took place during the third month.

Several other elements of Yonghegong are of historical interest and show the Qianlong emperor’s changing relationship with Tibetan Buddhism over his reign. After its initial dedication, the complex was reconstituted in the model of the great monasteries of Tibet as a university with four colleges of exoteric and esoteric Buddhism, medicine, and mathematics and calendrical sciences. Yonghegong houses a famous thangkha painting of the Qianlong emperor as the Manjughosa emperor, which has been the subject of much speculation as to how far the emperor was willing to go to associate himself with (or as) this bodhisattva. Several steles in the courtyards of the Yonghegong complex are also famous for their multilingual inscriptions. Written in the four official languages of the empire, Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan, two steles display the Qianlong emperor’s dedication edict of 1744. The subtle differences in translation between the four languages have been interpreted as displaying the Qianlong emperor’s uncanny ability and even obsession with constituting his authority over each of his subject peoples in their own idiom. Another stele, often known as the “Lama Shuo” or “Speaking of Lamas,” can be found in a single pavilion of the fourth courtyard. This edict is an infamous criticism of the Tibetan Buddhist establishment written late in the Qianlong emperor’s life and after the death of his teacher Rol pa’i rdo rje. Although he distances himself from Buddhism in this edict – most strongly in the Chinese language – he also claims that it is his familiarity with Tibetan Buddhism that makes him uniquely appropriate to reform its practices.

Source:
Patricia Berger. 2003. Empire of emptiness: Buddhist art and political authority in Qing China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Entry by Stacey Van Vleet, 4/3/07