![]() The sheer size of the statue will keep your neck craning for what seems like ages. It houses a Buddha statue of nearly four storeys high made from a piece of sandalwood. No doubt what you’ve been waiting for is in the final hall - the Wanfuge (Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses). Various rooms running off the courtyard contain the Wheel of Dharma that the Lamas use for religious observance, with a 20ft statue of Tsongkhapa, a famous teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, and statues of Yab-Yum, a divinity of both sexes whose sexual association symbolises cosmic unison. Devoted to medicine and prolonged existence, the hall features the Bhaisajya-guru - the medicine Buddha who heals the ill with his teachings. His coffin was placed here years later when he died. ![]() The hall was the residence of Emperor Yongzheng when he was young. It houses three bronze statues of the Buddhas of the three ages - Sakyamuni on whose teaching Buddhism was founded, Kasyapa Matanga who introduced Buddhism to China in the 1st century and another of Maitreya. The next site and the main palace of the temple is the hall of Harmony and Peace. The founder of the Sakya school, Khon Konchok Gyalpo (10341102), had a vision that he had to build a temple on Sakya’s pale earth. Sakya literally means pale earth, as the earth in the area is noted for its pale gray color. In this depiction, he is smiling with the statues of the four Heavenly Kings on either side. The Sakyas are a spiritual family that began in the 11th century in a place in Tibet that is now known as Sakya. Kelsang Gyatso, the leader of the New Kadampa Tradition. In the centre of the hall stands a statue of Maitreya - the fifth Buddha of the present, who is said will come to Earth, when the ocean size starts to diminish, to make it easier for him to walk the World freely. New Kadampa Buddhism was established in 1991 in Britain by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (affectionally called Geshe-la by his disciples), a Tibetan lama born in 1931 in Central Tibet, who in the ’70s came to Britain to teach Buddhism. By far one of the cities most impressive and fascinating temples, you could spend a whole day here enjoying the breath taking statues and artefacts.Įntering from the south, you’ll recognise the Hall of the Heavenly Kings, by the pair of bronze lions that stand in front of the hall. Visitors are encouraged to purchase and burn joss sticks at the site to worship Buddha. The temple has five main halls, each soaring over the one before, with clockwise changing prayer wheels, multicoloured tiles, lion statues and deep within the largest wooden Buddha in the world.
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