Lama Temple (Yonghe Gong)

Active Tibetan Buddhist monastery in central Beijing. Five courtyards of halls, a 26m carved-sandalwood Maitreya, and the city's largest gathering of monks.

The Lama Temple — Yonghe Gong, meaning Palace of Harmony — has an unusual origin for a Buddhist monastery. The complex was built as the residential compound of Prince Yinzhen, fourth son of the Kangxi Emperor, in 1694. When Yinzhen acceded to the Qing throne in 1722 as the Yongzheng Emperor, the residence was elevated to imperial status. By Qing custom, any building an emperor had slept in was too sacred for ordinary use. When the Yongzheng Emperor died, his son the Qianlong Emperor converted the compound into a Tibetan Buddhist monastery of the Gelugpa school in 1744, partly as a gesture toward the Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhist communities whose political support mattered to the Qing imperial project.

The five courtyards run north on a central axis in the manner of a standard Buddhist monastery, but the buildings are grander than most — they were, after all, an emperor's former residence. The Yonghe Gate Hall, the Hall of Harmony and Peace, the Hall of Eternal Blessing, the Hall of the Wheel of the Law, and the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses each stand progressively taller, with the Pavilion reaching 25 metres to contain a 26-metre white sandalwood statue of Maitreya Buddha carved from a single tree trunk. The statue was presented by the 7th Dalai Lama to the Qianlong Emperor; the carving is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest single-tree carved Buddhist statue.

The temple is an active Gelugpa monastery with resident monks, and it is one of the most heavily visited religious sites in Beijing. The incense courtyards are dense with worshippers on weekends and festival days. Morning on a weekday is quieter. Photography within the main halls is restricted. The surrounding Yonghegong Dajie has food stalls and shops catering to pilgrims; the Confucius Temple and Imperial College are a short walk.