| Putuo Zongcheng Temple | |
|---|---|
 The Putuo Zongcheng Temple ofChengde, built in the 18th century during the reign of theQianlong Emperor. | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Buddhist |
| Province | Hebei |
| Region | China |
| Status | Preserved |
| Location | |
| Municipality | Chengde |
 Interactive map of Putuo Zongcheng Temple | |
| Architecture | |
| Style | Tibetan and Chinese |
| Completed | 1771; 255 years ago (1771) |
| Putuo Zongcheng Temple | |||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 普陀宗乘之庙 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 普陀宗乘之廟 | ||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||
| Chinese | 小布达拉宫 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | Little Potala Palace | ||||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||||
| Tibetan | གྲུ་འཛིན་་་བསྟན་པའི་རྩ་བའི་ལྷ་ཁང༌། | ||||||||
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ThePutuo Zongcheng Temple (Chinese:普陀宗乘之庙;pinyin:Pǔtuó Zōngchéng zhī miào,Tibetan:གྲུ་འཛིན་་་བསྟན་པའི་རྩ་བའི་ལྷ་ཁང༌།,Wylie:Chunzin Dainbaiza Pailhakang) ofChengde,Hebei,China is aBuddhist temple complex built between 1767 and 1771.[1] It is located near theChengde Mountain Resort, which is south of the Putuo Zongcheng. Along with the equally famedPuning Temple, it is one of the Eight Outer Temples of Chengde. The temple was modeled after thePotala Palace ofTibet, the residence of theDalai Lama built a century earlier.[1][2] Since it was modeled after the Potala palace, the temple represents a fusion of Chinese and Tibetan architectural styles. The temple complex covers a surface area of some 220,000 square metres (2,400,000 ft2), making it one of the largest in China. Many of its halls andpavilions are adorned with copper and gold tiled roofs, adding to the splendor of the site.
The Putuo Zongcheng Temple is part of the "Eight Outer Temples" located inChengde, which are part of the World Heritage List along with theChengde Mountain Resort. These temples were administered by theLifan Yuan, an administrative department for the affairs of ethnic minorities such as the Mongolians and the Tibetans, hence the different combinations of architectural style which could be seen throughout theseEight Outer Temples in Chengde.
The Putuo Zongcheng Temple was originally dedicated to Qianlong to celebrate his birthday, as well as provide Hebei with a Buddhist temple of equal size and splendor as thePotala Palace inLhasa. The Putuo Zongcheng temple served more functions than just Buddhist ceremonies and festivals; it was also the location that the emperor would gather meetings of different ethnic envoys from within the empire. The location served as a peaceful getaway in contrast to the bustling life of the capitalBeijing, as well as complimented the nearby hunting grounds that the emperor would enjoy with his guests.
As of 1994, the Chengde Mountain Resort and Chengde's Eight Outer Temples (including the Putuo Zongcheng Temple) were established asUNESCOWorld Heritage Sites. Today, the temple remains a site of tourism and local festivities.
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Swedish explorersSven Hedin,Gösta Montell, Georg Söderbom and Chinese architect Liang Weihua (W. H. Liang) came to Putuo Zongcheng in June 1930.[3] This was part ofthe Sino-Swedish expedition and the mission was to procure a Lamaistic temple to theWorld Exhibition in Chicago in 1933, Century of Progress.[4] An exact model in full scale 1:1 was manufactured at Liang's workshops in Beijing. Two smaller models in scale 1:10 were also made. The full scale model was set up in Chicago. One of the smaller models was also sent to Chicago to help set up the full scale temple. The other small model was taken to the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm.[5][6]
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| East |
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| South Central |
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| Southwestern | ||
| North | ||
| Northeast | ||
| Northwestern | ||
| Multiple regions |
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41°00′45″N117°55′41″E / 41.0125°N 117.928°E /41.0125; 117.928