Puning Temple (Hebei)

The Puning Temple (), commonly called the Big Buddha Temple, is a Buddhist temple complex in Chengde, Hebei province, China. It was built in 1755 during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the Qing dynasty. It is near the Chengde Mountain Resort and alongside the equally famed Putuo Zongcheng Temple. Puning is one of the "Eight Outer Temples" of Chengde.

The Puning Temple was modeled after the Samye Monastery, the sacred Buddhist site in Tibet (much as the Putuo Zongcheng Temple was modeled after the Potala Palace in Lhasa). The front temple was constructed in the Chinese style, although the temple complex follows both Chinese and Tibetan architectural styles. The Puning Temple houses the world's tallest wooden sculpture of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (22.28-meter-high and 110 ton), hence it is often nicknamed the "Big Buddha Temple". The complex features temple halls, pavilions, drum towers and bell towers.
Waley-Cohen, Joanna. "Commemorating War in Eighteenth-Century China," ''Modern Asian Studies'' (Volume 30, Number 4, Special Issue: War in Modern China, 1996): 869–899.

History

Since the 18th century, during the Qing dynasty, the Dzungar people of northwestern modern China (Xinjiang) were engaged in war against Qing empire invasion. The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty dispatched an army to Yili to suppress their resistance against Qing rule. The Qing army attacked Kulja ( Yining) and captured the ruling Dzungar khan. After the conquest, the Qianlong Emperor personally inscribed his writing on a tablet that is in the stele pavilion of the Puning Temple. This stele of 1755, called the ''Puning Sibei'', commemorated the founding of the temple and the victory over the Dzungars.Waley-Cohen, 880. The Qianlong Emperor ordered the building of this new Temple of Universal Peace, a symbol of his ambition to maintain peace among ethnic minorities and a stable environment in the northwestern regions. The historian Waley-Cohen calls Chengde "a crucial location for the exhibition of Manchu power and the representation of Qing imperial knowledge," being the location of the summer capital. Since the Dzungars were followers of Tibetan Buddhism, the temple was built in imitation of Samye monastery in Tibet.

The large wooden Buddhist statue of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in the main hall of the Puning Temple is one of its most renowned features. It shows a thousand different eyes and a thousand different arms stretched out from its frame (in various sizes). The statue itself is made from five kinds of wood, including pine, cypress, elm, fir, and linden.

As of 1994, the Chengde Mountain Resort and Chengde's Eight Outer Temples (including the Puning Temple) were established as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Today, the Puning Temple remains a site of tourist attraction and local festivities.

Gallery

Image:Dafuosi.jpg, Main hall housing the Bodhisattva
Image:Chengde, China - 016.jpg, Looking up at the Bodhisattva
Image:Chengde, China - 011.jpg, Temple grounds
Image:Chengde, China - 008.jpg, Main temple
Image:Chengde, China - 021.jpg, Temple grounds
Image:Dafuosi3.jpg, Turning wheels of the Buddha's doctrine at Puning Temple, a modern addition.
Image:Dafuosi4.jpg, A courtyard of Puning Temple
Image:Chengde, China - 006.jpg, A Chinese pavilion of Puning Temple
Image:Puning Temple entrance.jpg, Temple entrance
Image:Puning Temple, Hall of Mahayana.jpg, Hall housing the Bodhisattva
Image:Puning Temple, Place in front of hall of Mahayana.jpg, Area in front of the Bodhisattva hall

See also

*List of Buddhist temples
* Putuo Zongcheng Temple

References

External links

Eight Outer Temples, Puning Temple

Chengde Travel GuideCuicui.be : 360 Visit in panophotography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puning Temple
Tibetan Buddhist temples in Hebei
Buildings and structures in Chengde
Qing dynasty architecture
18th-century Buddhist temples
Gelug monasteries and temples
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1755
1755 establishments in China
Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Hebei